I've always used phrases too... like if I have a page to target horny goat weed I use horny, goat, weed, horny goat, horny weed, horny goat weed, pretty much every different combination of the keywords
a lot of people are saying that meta-tags are irrelevent now... to those people I say "you make a lot more money than me"
and let's keep the horny goat weed jokes to a minimum.... I'm a pathetic old goat that sells porn and smokes weed.... wadya expect?
