Are Meta Tags Really Dead?

Right in their Guidelines Yahoo Tells You that Meta-Tags are Not Totally Dead and Buried
Pages Yahoo! Wants Included in its Index

* Original and unique content of genuine value
* Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary
* Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable
* Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page
* Good web design in general

Right in their Guidelines Yahoo States "Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page." By Title MetaData they mean the text between the Tags in your HTML Page. By Description Yahoo mean the actual Meta Tag Name="Description". So Meta Data at least as Far as Yahoo is Concerned is Not Dead.

Let's Examine Some of the Key Points that Yahoo states are important in their help file and see how we can employ some simple methods to meet Yahoo's Guideline.

Original and unique content of genuine value

Yahoo is looking for well written Keyword rich Content that has useful information. Concentrate on 1 Keyword or Keyword Phrase per Web Page. If You web Page is less then 500 Words use a
Keyword Density of about 2-3àIf your Web Page is Above 500 Words Use a Keyword Density of About 5àTry to Keep your Web Pages under 750 Words.

Pages designed primarily for humans, with search engine considerations secondary

Yahoo and Google are working hard to get rid of those Robotic Page Writers. Your pages should be fairly well written, It is OK to Optimize for search engines as long as your content is Human Engineered Well.

Hyperlinks intended to help people find interesting, related content, when applicable

Try and have 3 or 4 Links to closely related Content. It is ok to link to other web Pages within in your site but 1 or 2 external links should be mixed in when Possible. Make sure you use your Keyword or Phrase in the Anchor text for your Link.

Metadata (including title and description) that accurately describes the contents of a web page.

Your Title and Description Meta Data Should Accurately reflect your web page Content. Every web page from your site should have unique Title and Description Meta Data. Both Title and description Meta Data should use Keywords and Keyword Phrases. Don't use the same keyword or phrase directly next to each other.

Title Meta Data

Keep your Title less then 80 Characters if at all possible. Place your Title Meta Data First. Place the exact same Title at the very top of your Web Page Preferably inside the H1 Tag.

Description Meta Data

The Description Meta Tag should appear directly under the Title Meta Data. Keep your Descriptions between 100 and 150 Characters if possible. Your Keyword Density in your Description should be about 10àMake sure your Description accurately reflects your web page. Where possible the text in your description Meta Data should actually appear Word for Word near the Top of your Web Page.

Power User Super Tip - Where it fits use your description within h2 tags as a Sub Page Header Directly under your title.

Good web design in general

Books have been written about Web Design, Some key points is to make sure your web sites is thematic and pages are related to each other,. For every page you create to target a Keyword phrase have 3 or more (as many as 10 related pages). Either add new pages once or more a week or significantly change current pages. Make your Web Pages easy to crawl. Have a well organized Drill Down Site Map. As an Example if your Web Page is about Real Estate your Site-Map may look something like this

Real Estate Topics

1. Buying a Home

-- Your Perfect Neighborhood
-- Find that Lender
-- Hidden Deals in those FSBOs (For Sale by Owner)

2. Selling a Home

-- Picking a Realtor
-- Pricing your Home
-- Get Your Home Ready for the Sale

3. Investment Property

-- Landlord Tenet relations
-- The Perfect Lease

4. Commercial Real Estate

5. Vacation Property

6. Retirement Homes

It is Fairly easy to give Yahoo what they want and improve your Page Ranking. Just give Yahoo what they are telling you they want.