Meta Tag Optimization is Still Very Much Alive

Meta tag optimization once used to be among the most powerful search engine optimization techniques. However, because of the way some SEO practitioners abused this optimization method to get undeserved exposure in the search results, the value of meta tags as a ranking criterion dropped sharply in favor of other on site and off site factors. As a result of these changes in the search engine ranking algorithms the role of meta tag optimization decreased with many SEOs completely overlooking meta tags as an optimization tool. Despite the fact that meta tags alone no longer can make or break search engine rankings, they are still important for a number of reasons.

The value of meta tag optimization is threefold:

• it encourages search engine users to click on your link;
• boosts your rankings on the search engines that use meta tags as a relevance factor;
• and increases the accuracy of internal searchers within your website.

Although meta tags are not a decisive ranking factor any more they to a large extent determine whether your link in the search results will draw users’ attention. The thing is that the major search engines display meta tag descriptions in the SERPs (search engine results pages) right below the link. The information you put in your meta tags is used as a brief summary of a web page indicating its relevancy to a particular topic.

Meta Tag Optimization to Reinforce Content 

A meta tag description should reinforce the value of the content you have on the page. This can be achieved by proper use of the targeted keywords and search phrases. A compelling meta tag description can drastically increase the chances that your link will get clicked by the searchers. The logic is simple, the better written your meta tag is, the more clickthroughs it is likely to win. Thus meta tag optimization has become more user oriented rather then search engine driven. And after all the ultimate goal of a SEO campaign is not just to get high search engine ranking but also to get a boost in click through rates. What’s the use of top search engine placement if it doesn’t result in more customers? The ROI of a SEO campaign largely depends on how you can convert the search traffic, and here meta tags can be very effective.

Although a number of search engines including Google don’t give much weight to meta tags when ranking a page, a number of search engines still do. Meta tag optimization can help you boost your rankings on some smaller search engines resulting in more targeted traffic. Meta tags also get extremely important for websites utilizing their own search engines for searches within the website. Meta tag optimization will increase the accuracy of search results providing the visitors with more relevant information which is actually what they need.