Meta tags - better NOT to have?
-
OK ok . . . the SEOMox report card told me it's actually better NOT to have meta tag keywords on my page, because my competitors can then look at my page to see what words I am trying to target . . .
That makes since, but is also painfully counter intuitive. I thought I would just double check and make sure . .. NO META TAGS KEYWORDS?
and if so . . .. what (if anything) should I have in the meta tags?
-
The only meta that I really care about is the Description. The others i let wordpress auto manage but im thinking in getting it out (the meta keyword) since it would be a hint to my competitors on wich keywords i have been optmizing for.
-
I don't use meta keywords simply because I don't think they have any value at all.
I do use meta descriptions though. At first I didn't because Google usually does a good job at picking out a snippet that is appropriate to the user's search.
However, if you have stuff that gets shared on Facebook, Facebook uses the meta description as a description for the post when it gets shared.
-
I agree. If any competitor is sniffin' your meta tags you probably don't have to worry about him.
-
In 2011, true SEO professionals could care less what you put in your meta Keywords field, since that field has not been used as an SEO method in a long long time. All they need do is look at your page Titles. Or they can run a bot to scrape your page Titles, h1 tags, link URLs, internal and inbound link anchor text, image alt attributes, to generate a neat spreadsheet. All automatically.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does google look at H3 tags?
I've had someone tell me that google doesn't pay attention to H3 tags -- only H1 and H2. I haven't found much online to back this up or discredit it; thought I'd ask the Moz community!
Technical SEO | | LivDetrick5 -
"No Meta Description Tag"
Google is not showing Meta Description for the Keyword Rankings of my website in the SERPs. All of my Keywords Ranking are coming with just two fields. Which are just 1. Title Tag & 2. Page URL. The description tag is missing in it. Here is a proof
Technical SEO | | seobacKindly advice please.
1 -
How can my homepage have 2 meta descriptions?
Hi all, When googling our company, I see our main page pop up with 2 different meta descriptions, depending on the search query. The situation
Technical SEO | | NHA_DistanceLearning
The search query 'nha' (on google.nl) returns the main page with a meta description that looks like a random grab from the code by Google itself, starting with 'Ik volg een cursus bij de NHA...' The search query 'nha.nl' (on google.nl) returns the main page with the proper meta description, starting with 'Aanbieder van thuisstudies met onder meer MBO-opleidingen...'. So yeah, I'd like to have the main page only appear with the proper meta description, the latter one. We did have a redirect issue (duplicate homepages) a few weeks ago and programming fixed it. Could this have something to do with a redirect? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!0 -
Link Webmaster Tools to Tag Manager
I know it is now possible to verify google webmaster tools accounts using google tag manager, but is it also possible to create a link from webmaster tools to tag manager? I would like to connect the two. I have analytics already linked to tag manager, but can't find a clear answer regarding webmaster tools. Anybody? tx!
Technical SEO | | susancompass0 -
Phone Number In Meta Description
People are more likely to call us, than email us. However, if they're using a mobile device, there's a click to call button on that site. My question is this: google does not include our phone number in our meta description. I could try to get the description changed, but it doesn't seem like it would make that big of a deal for just the desktop site. Am I missing something about the importance of the phone number on a desktop site? Any experience with this situation? Thanks, Ruben
Technical SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup3 -
Google indexing tags help
Hey everyone, So yesterday someone pointed out to me that Google is indexing tags and that will likely hurt search engine results. I just did a "site:thetechblock.com" and I notice that tags are still being pulled. http://d.pr/i/WmE6 Today, I went into my Yoast settings and checked "noindex,follow" tags in the Taxomomies settings. I just want to make sure what I'm doing is right. http://d.pr/i/zmbd Thanks guys
Technical SEO | | ttb0 -
Meta data in includes: not ideal or a problem?
I have pages with meta data being pulled in via an include. This was to prevent people from touching the pages themselves. Is this an optimization issue- or is it OK to do?
Technical SEO | | Tribeca-Marketing-Group0