Is Metadata Dead?
I have heard too many times from SEO specialists stating that metadata (meta tags for websites) are either have insignificant results or are now obsolete. My experience is that meta tags are not dead nor insignificant. Metadata is usually only read or visible to search engine robots and other code scanning programs. Major search engines utilize meta data which appears to be extremely important to search engine rankings. A simple test to verify that metadata is important to your site in getting or staying properly indexed and ranked by search engines, try removing your meta tags and watch what happens to your search engine positioning. Your site will plummet far below the visited web SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Metadata or meta tags are frequently an overlooked factor which can improve the ranking of most any properly constructed web site.
Metadata is Vital
An example of how vital meta tags are to your webpage and to your search engine ranking. Our website ranks at position #5 on Bing for the keyword “innovators of internet marketing”. To test the obsolete meta tag theory, we changed one word in the meta description tag and we dropped to position #17 in the search results. Our rankings on Google and several other search engines suffered further in our rankings. It appears that all major search engines utilize metadata for indexing within their SERPs and for other purposes, such as the Description Tag of a webpage for part of the material used in the search snippet.
Yahoo states in their Search Content Quality Guidelines that they want Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page included in the Index.
Your Title and Description Metadata should accurately reflect your web page content. Every web page from your site should have a unique Title and Description Meta Tag. Both Title and Description Metadata should use your target Keywords and Keyword Phrases for the particular web page they are referring to. Don’t use the same keyword or keyword phrase directly next to each other in your Title or Description Metadata.
Title Metadata
Keep your Title to less than 80 characters for optimal indexing. Place your Title Metadata first (directly below the Head tag. Place the exact same Title at the very top of your web page preferably inside an H1 tag.
The Title Tag is probably the most important on-page (on-site) SEO factors to consider. This is because search engine spiders read this tag first and place a high level of weight on the keywords found there. The Title Tag is also used for the title of your listing in the search results. The contents of your Title Tag will also appear in the top left corner of the browser bar. Correct title tag optimization is essiential and will result in a dramatic increase in your search engine rankings. The title tag should contain at least one or more keywords to be of any relevance to the web page.
Description Metadata
The Description Meta Tag should appear directly under the Title Metadata. Keep your Descriptions between 100 and 150 Characters again to optimize the robot indexing process. Your Keyword Density in your Description should be about 10%. Make sure your Description accurately reflects the current web page. Where possible the text in your Description Metadata should also appear near the Top of your Web Page.
SEO Tip
WWW SEO Tip: When possible, use your Title Tag in the h1 tag and your Description copy within an h2 tag as a sub-page header directly under your page’s title.
Search engine spiders read the Description Meta Tag next. This tag is often used as a website description in the search results. The Description Tag should also contain a few keywords. The Keyword Meta Tag is also vital to search engine rankings by giving search engine spiders a sample of relevant text and content within a web page. Other meta tags include robots, resource, author, copyright, etc. These tags are not as important as the title, description and keyword tags, however they should be included if possible. To achieve a high search engine ranking, you need to optimize your metadata. Proper on-page optimization will greatly improve your search engine placement (SERP).
