Stupid question re. KEYWORDS in Meta Tag

[GeorgeTH]

Then again, if I'm not sure I guess I'm allowed to ask...

I always thought that keywords are just that: words separated by a comma...

But recently I have noticed on several pages that people are using in their meta tags search terms instead of single words, things like "free porn, natural boobs, big tits, shaved pussy, naked milf" -

is this an accepted and favorable way to use keywords? How are SE spiders dealing with this?

[MrYum]

Well, I've always used the term key'phrases' as opposed to keywords. So, I'm one of the folks using search terms and singular words in metas. I almost never use more than 2...somtimes 3 words in a keyphrase. Also use some singular words...depends on the page I'm building.

Someone a long time ago mentioned that getting traffic on singular terms was much more difficult that 2 or even 3 word key'phrases'...so I use those phrases in the metas...separated by commas.

Oh, and there are differing schools of thought on the use of the separating commas too...that just freaks me out!

[Kinky]

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?

[Useless]

Originally Posted by kinky

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"

I keep reading in web design newsletters that the big SEs ignore the keyword meta tag now, but some smaller engines still use them. So, keep using keywords and SHORT phrases there, but don't expect them to make Google drink your load.

[Toby]

I've been taking some evening classes in "Internet Marketing" at the Small Business Development Center at U of Houston. The main focus has been SEO. The KEYWORD Meta is still worth including, for the smaller SE's as UW noted, but the big guys have been ignoring it for ages now due to abuse. The real thing to focus on is keyword (and key phrase) density within the text of your pages, but even more important is TITLE tag. It should be relevant to the page and should be different on each page of your site.

[Trev]

Originally Posted by Toby

It should be relevant to the page and should be different on each page of your site.

That's the part I struggle with sometimes. I forget to make them different and then back them up in the text. I'm going to go back and do it.... really.... it's on the list... right there..... see..... really... just let me do this first...

[GeorgeTH]

Thank for the insides so far

[Monsieur]

As some people already stated, the bigger search engines (e.g. Google) don't care about most meta tags (including the keyword-tag) anymore.

I myself am still doing all meta tags on portals or other sites where I'm mainly relying on search engines but don't include keyword-tags on my galleries or free sites anymore.

But I suggest that you should be doing it, because every visitor referred by a search engine could mean a sale, so if you don't want to throw money away you should include the keyword-metatag.

To the initial question:
Of course you can also include more than one word (e.g. horny milfs, milfs, horny, old milfs) in the keyword-metatag which is very common on the web.
The search engines don't have a problem indexing that.

[Linkster]

You might want to consider using the keywords and phrase as Yahoo does use that meta now, and since a link from Yahoo does count in your ranking in Google, it defintiely does play a part.
I have always used both phrases and words, and guidelines published by Yahoo and others suggest that a two or three word phrase do definitely work in the meta.
Keep in mind also that all SEs (yep even Google) - do look at the meta for length and repeatibilty for the possibility of scamming so it is in your best interest to keep them within the W3C guidelines

[Joe]

As some people already stated, the bigger search engines (e.g. Google) don't care about most meta tags (including the keyword-tag) anymore.

Yahoo, which is the second biggest search engine, favors meta tags.

If you include a unique phrase in your meta tags, and search for it in Yahoo, it will show up in the SERPS.

[Linkster]

Joe - thats exactly right - works wonders and since Google likes links from Yahoo so much it will eventually give you a boost in Google as well