Truth And Reality About The Use Keywords in Web pages Meta-Tags To Obtain Relevant Visibility On Major Search Engines

In an effort to support and help the many of you who are trying to achieve or improve their visibility and ranking on major search engines like Google, I am reviewing here below a few simple key points to keep in mind when preparing Web pages that you want to come up on major search engine query result pages.

According to my findings and ongoing tests, there are few, key points that are essential to achieving effective results if you're looking for global exposure through the major search engines. None of them has to do with "tricking" the search engines in to believing or treating your web page for what it is not. Attempting to trick search engines into believing your content can only provide adverse effects to the overall search system mechanism. If we all trick the system the results we will receive from it are going to be not as relevant and useful as we need them to be.

1. For the purpose of obtaining visibility and exposure through the major search engines, the use of keywords and related metatag is completely useless.

2. There are only 2-3 search engines worth optimizing for (Google, Yahoo, the group including Lycos, Alltheweb, Altavista).

3. Relevance is determined in order of importance by keyphrase relevance as computed from:
a) Page Title
b) H1 title
c) Sub-titles and body content
d) In-bound links from relevant Web sites

4. Keywords are not as effective as keyphrases that describe the content you are making available online.

5. Inclusion in the database of a major search engine is not achieved by automatic or manual submission but by having the new content linked to by already existing and well indexed Web pages (pages that already appear in search engine results).

Traditional approaches based on metatags, link exchange, automatic submission tools and link farms provide very ineffective results and might create situations that search engine themselves adverse (e.g. your Web site gets banned).

from MasterMind "Web Marketing Myths"
38 Web Marketing Myths

Myth #14: To be found on the major search engines it is essential to utilize the keywords meta tag in your HTML pages

Reality: The keyword meta tag is essentially useless. Most search engines have dropped analylizing its content due to the high amount of spamming and unethical marketing that had been carried through its use by unscrupulous marketers.

Most of the major search engines do not recognize meta tags at all. While you do need meta tags for the search engines that DO recognize them, search engine algorithms take all sorts of other information into account when ranking your Web pages. Each search engine is different. You need to pay attention to the specifics of each one, and optimize your site for them all.

Morale: Do not focus on meta tags or stuffing keywords on your Web pages to achieve good search engine position results. Focus, rich and relevant content and appropriate titling of your pages is what is required to achieve top ranking on most search engines.

For more information and a detailed discussion of this topicplease see:
38 Web Marketing Myths
Search Engine Marketing and Optimization - How to Organize Your Keyword Combinations and Keyphrases To Increase The Relevance and Ranking of Your Web Page