Thread: Google Confirms: Keyword and Description Meta Tag No Effect on Search Rankings

Interesting and useful, nice thread Bogart thanx.

G!

Hi,

But other search engines still use them right? So it is a good idea to still add them at the time of post. Right?

Butterflies Forever

Sami

Originally Posted by Sami4u

Hi,

But other search engines still use them right? So it is a good idea to still add them at the time of post. Right?

Butterflies Forever

Sami

This is a good question. Yahoo will use the description from the Yahoo directory. I'm not sure whether Bing uses the description for ranking purposes. But they only have a 8% share of search and I don't really beleive that it is that high.

I don't understand why so many people make such a huge hoopla about the meta description and keywords. Who cares if they are beneficial or not -- just fill them in anyways, in a legitimate and non-spammy manner.

Other search engines may use them, and they may provide other benefits that we don't know about. Also, some link directories pull the meta description of the website in its listing on the directory.

If it isn't harmful, there's no reason not to do it. You shouldn't be looking for reasons to do it -- just do it anyways!
That's my opinion at least. Sorry for rambling.

Originally Posted by Nick

If it isn't harmful, there's no reason not to do it. You shouldn't be looking for reasons to do it -- just do it anyways!

There's always the issue of the time that it takes to write hundreds of descriptions. Google doesn't always use the description meta tag for the snippets that they show and doesn't use the description meta tag in ranking a website. So, it may not be worth the effort to worry about a description tag.

I would say that it's less important to provide descriptions for articles as the snippets may be more valuable to the user.

Even if Google has confessed that these thing have no effect on search rankings, I would do that anyway... Maybe it has effect on Yahoo search rankings...

Originally Posted by Sukijus

Even if Google has confessed that these thing have no effect on search rankings, I would do that anyway... Maybe it has effect on Yahoo search rankings...

Yahoo is going to start using Bing results.

Originally Posted by bogart

There's always the issue of the time that it takes to write hundreds of descriptions. Google doesn't always use the description meta tag for the snippets that they show and doesn't use the description meta tag in ranking a website. So, it may not be worth the effort to worry about a description tag.

I would say that it's less important to provide descriptions for articles as the snippets may be more valuable to the user.

Doesn't take but a minute or two to implement during the creation of a website. I don't see how it can be that much of a hassle. To each his own, I guess.

Originally Posted by Nick

Doesn't take but a minute or two to implement during the creation of a website. I don't see how it can be that much of a hassle. To each his own, I guess.

Creating a title, description and meta tags can eat up more than a few minutes when you consider keyword research and seo factors.

I would suggest to build the site without the meta tags and as part of the search optimization process create the meta tags as needed.

meta keywrods and description tag is no longer works for google but i think in other search engines like yahoo and bing still recognize those two meta tags. Just only a guess.