50 Comments to “SEO Optimizing Blogs”

1. November 21st, 2005 at 5:14 pm
   Jennifer Grucza said

   Hmm, I’m kind of surprised META tags made this list. The consensus seems to be that most search engines don’t pay too much attention to them anymore.

2. November 21st, 2005 at 5:17 pm
   Jennifer Grucza said

   Sorry, I submitted before I was finished. I was just going to say that I think what’s more important than META tags is incoming links (both internal, within your own site, and external, from other people’s sites) and the text used for those links.

   Also heading tags (h1, h2, h3) are supposed to be almost as useful as title tags.

3. November 21st, 2005 at 5:23 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Jennifer,
   Good points all. I think why we included them will be made more clear when you see the detail tomorrow. The conversation on links is coming too. :)
   smiles,
   Liz

4. November 21st, 2005 at 5:34 pm
   Eric Mutta said

   Jennifer, it’s not entirely true that most engines don’t pay attention to meta tags anymore. I can say with certainty that the “keywords” and “description” meta tags are heeded by both Google and Yahoo. I have used both these tags and tested them with the search engines and they work as expected.

   I do agree however, on the importance of incoming links. There is a series of videos somewhere on the web where someone from google explains the way PageRank functions and how it is reliant on links. I’ll try and see if I can find it again.

5. November 21st, 2005 at 5:38 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Thanks, Eric,
   It’s magic how you appeared. Can you always do that?
   Liz

6. November 21st, 2005 at 5:51 pm
   Nick said

   META tags

   Yeah, back in 1998 they were pretty important - now? No way.

   To say that meta tags are an important part of SEO is misleading at best. They are not. Period.

   There’s a reason you dont see any keywords meta tags in any of my websites.

   The thing you got right, is title’s - for bloggers they matter a hell of a lot, but the worth of a keywords meta tag is outweighed by the line of code used to place it.

7. November 21st, 2005 at 6:07 pm
   Eric Mutta said

   I can where I am potentially useful :-)

   I didn’t find that video, but there are some interesting papers/presentations on Google and search engines: Challenges in Running a Commercial Search Engine is one such presentation.

8. November 21st, 2005 at 6:33 pm
   liberalcowboy said

   LifeHacker blogged something useful on this topic
   http://www.lifehacker.com/software/seo/getting-to-done-seo-made-easy-138429.php

   Good insite liz.

9. November 21st, 2005 at 6:49 pm
   Eric Mutta said

   Thanks for that pointer cowboy. It’s interesting to note that Lifehacker.com uses the robots, description and keywords meta tags…and it has a page rank of 7.

10. November 21st, 2005 at 6:52 pm
    liberalcowboy said

    I don’t think there telling the truth. I don’t think it makes a difference. I think its mostly about the links baby.

11. November 21st, 2005 at 6:56 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Nick, Eric, Cowboy,
    Thanks Nick, for the update and for helping us stay on top of the subject.

    Eric, I know Jennifer and others will appreciate you finding that information for them.

    Hey, Cowboy, You think Keith stopped by his old hometown this weekend? :P
    Liz

12. November 21st, 2005 at 6:57 pm
    Eric Mutta said

    Nick, I must have somehow missed your post. You seem to have it on firm authority that META tags are not important for SEO, and if that’s the case then I wont argue as I only got into the game this year.

    Having said that, while meta tags may not affect how you rank in search engines, I’d say things like the description meta tag are useful when you do show up in the search results. E.g for my blog, when you get a direct hit, both Google and Yahoo show the contents of my description meta tag in the excerpt.

13. November 21st, 2005 at 7:02 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Eric and Cowboy,
    That’s not “Livehacker” talking that’s a submitter, Keith, who started Successful Blog and also runs the 9rules sight To-done.

    This is why I wrote the first piece about nothing in SEO being written in concrete. I knew we would end up here soon enough.
    Liz

14. November 21st, 2005 at 7:27 pm
    Martin (HomeOfficeVoice) said

    Great start Liz and Eric,

    Spot on about the Title tag - but I’m now totally confused about the Meta Tags. Every SEO-type of blog/site/forum I visit it’s almost consensus that Meta Tags are useless. So what is it? :-)

    Agree with Jennifer here - H1 H2 etc tags are very useful - almost on a par with the title tag, imo.

    Keep up the good work guys, I’ll be posting about this at the end of the week for my readers - so give me lots of great posts to links to.

15. November 21st, 2005 at 7:33 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hartin,
    We’re looking and I’ve got Nick Wilson checking on what we’re going to show you tomorrow. Basically, old information is everywhere . . . which is why I started with the “not in concrete” statement. I knew I wasn’t going to make through this week with a perfect record.
    Liz.

16. November 21st, 2005 at 7:35 pm
    liberalcowboy said

    Lifehacker is just the name of the website. It’s not actually a person. I would have to be insane to think that was a persons name. btw. Metatags are useless.

17. November 21st, 2005 at 7:49 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Cowboy,
    I disagree. I have a metatag in my template that defines what comes up in my site listing every time it comes up. It’s beautiful. It allowed me to put a picture where the usual site description is.

    The official word is in. It’ll be part of our document tomorrow. I’m right and so are you. :P
    Liz

18. November 21st, 2005 at 8:05 pm
    Eric Mutta said

    This ambiguity on meta tags is interesting. We have high ranking sites that use them and high ranking sites that don’t.

    The conclusion one can draw from this is: if you use them, your site wont spontaneously combust and that if you don’t use them the world wont end either.

    So like Liz says, we are all right and we are all wrong - all at once (a state of affairs that would put a smile on the face of a quantum physicist :D ).

19. November 21st, 2005 at 8:15 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Eric,
    Glad to see you so happy.
    Liz

20. November 21st, 2005 at 11:43 pm
    Mike said

    I’m here…I’m looking forward to more of it…I’m gonna be quiet because I know nothing of what they speak.

    Thanks for the lessons, Teach’.

21. November 21st, 2005 at 11:45 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mike,
    How are ya!
    That’s okay–we have it all figured out. Tomorrow there’s a real how-to. Just for you. :)
    Liz

22. November 22nd, 2005 at 10:50 am
    Jennifer Grucza said

    You’re right Eric, that a meta description tag is useful in that Google will show it as the description in it’s search results (though sometimes it will still show different text if the search terms aren’t in the description and are elsewhere on the page). So definitely it’s a good way to influence whether a person actually clicks on your link when they’re searching for something.

23. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:18 am
    indeterminacy said

    I read about the metatags a while ago. I believe it said they’ve diminished in importance, but some search engines still use them. A friend of mine acting as webmaster for a friend’s site searched for the terms that he wanted the site to come up with, then looked at the tags in the top hits, then incorporated the relevant ones.

24. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:32 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Jennifer,
    The description tab, which I’m just about to put a post up on, will show up on a direct hit. That’s why I still have one and still recommend using one, especially for blogs that are in a creative niche.
    Liz

25. November 22nd, 2005 at 11:35 am
    ME Strauss said

    I agree, Indie. I think that the argument against using them has mostly to do with not over-gunking up your blog–which I suspect many new bloggers are tempted to do. I know I was.
    Liz

26. November 22nd, 2005 at 3:40 pm
    Nick said

    >> It’s interesting to note that Lifehacker.com uses the robots, description and keywords meta tags…and it has a page rank of 7.

    After a statement like that, how can you possibly “teach” these folks about seo? Further on, you say you only got into it this year — Liz, you need to work on getting real information out there if you’re going to do this, not general ill informed guesswork.

27. November 22nd, 2005 at 4:07 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Nick,
    Your point is taken. I stand chastised.

    Though I don’t think that we’ve set ourselves up as experts here . . . more as explorers seeking information.
    Liz

28. November 22nd, 2005 at 7:10 pm
    Eric Mutta said

    Why, thank you, Nick. I haven’t been called incompetent in public for a very long time. Kinda has a ring to it :-)

29. November 22nd, 2005 at 7:18 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Aw, Eric,
    If only you had let me know . . . :)
    Liz

30. November 22nd, 2005 at 8:54 pm
    Nick said

    I think this line is the problem here guys — i dont know if i can use html here so i’ll pub quotes on it

    “Lucky for me a programmer and all-around good-guy, Eric Mutta, came to the rescue. He agreed to work with me on this series to make sure that I got the facts straight and to fill in the details that I was missing. Let’s let Eric have a word.”

    See, if you’d said that differently, you wouldn’t be perceived as “setting yourselves up as experts”.

    You’ve asked me a couple of times why i’ve only pointed out what’s wrong, and not helped educate. I’ll answer that now.

    Frankly, i dont have the time it would take. SEO is NOT something you can explain in the comments of a blog, or in the post of a blog, or even several posts — it just isn’t that simple.

    A multi billion dollar industry does not get built out of a skill anyone can pick up in a few posts - or summarize in a single sitting. With me?

    If you *really* want to learn something, i’d highly recommend Aaron Wall’s book, and blog at http://www.seobook.com - i reviewed it here: http://www.threadwatch.org/resources/seo/books/seobook and stand by my assertion that that is the single best resource for beginners and experts alike in existence.

    it’s about $80 but i’d have happily have paid 300 for it.

31. November 22nd, 2005 at 9:12 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Nick,
    Well there you go, that was entirely my fault. The writer in me got carried away with the lovely words. I take your point. Thank you for explaining that.

    Thanks too for the recommendation. That helps a lot. I appreciate it.

    It’s always good for a writer to know how a reader hears a message.
    Liz

32. November 23rd, 2005 at 1:32 pm
    Blog Marketing, Blog Promotion for Newbies » Blog Archive » Shakespeare Blogging? said

    […] Monday comes around, Liz begins her series and, unless I’m going blind, appears obvious in her writings that she doesn’t know everything and is somewhat more interested in provoking our minds. And that is exactly what happens… (I’m looking at 31 comments right now). […]

33. November 24th, 2005 at 2:07 am
    Ezequiel Espíndola said

    I’m concerned nobody mentioned what is in fact the key to SEO. It’s not what the so called SEO companies and online marketing wannabes from the marketing real world want to make you believe it is. It’s about the use of web standards and semantic coding on your pages. Learn to use HTML (now XHTML) as it was conceived in the first place. Add valuable content to them. Content is King and the SEs will love him.

34. November 24th, 2005 at 2:38 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Ezequiel,
    You are right. It has been hinted at but no one has said. Thank you for bringing it up. I’m with you 100% That need to be said and it need to be said LOUDLY. Clean code and quality content is what serves us all and the search engines, because in the end search engines are made to sereve our readers.
    Liz

35. November 24th, 2005 at 10:10 am
    Nick said

    Why does it matter if meta tags are used by search engines or not? It certainly isn’t going to hurt you to put them in, especially if they come back into fashion.
    Anyway, the Googlebot may not use the meta tags, but the MediaBot sure as hell does. On a page with only a little text, try putting some meta tags in that have nothing to do with the content of the page. After a while you will get ads related to the meta tag content, not the page content.

36. November 24th, 2005 at 10:23 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Nick,
    Thanks for stopping by and for adding to the discussion.
    I’ll give that test a try. I could use some different ads. I think most folks who visit don’t need another blog ad to click.
    By the way, I got the confirmation, and I’m on Chapter 2. Thank you again for that.
    Liz

37. December 1st, 2005 at 1:45 pm
    Brian said

    Liz, why did you strike-out the meta-tags section? You’d be amazed at how important they are now. Seriously.

38. December 1st, 2005 at 2:26 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Brian,
    Once upon a time some SEO experts brought some mean words to some curious folks. They thought that being negative would make make the curious folks cry and cower, but it didn’t. It just made them like Alice in Wonderland curiouser and curiouser. But in the meantime while they were looking, one curious girl, named Liz–I think–decided to not take any chances at misleading folks and so she marked out some text to let them know it should be checked.

    Since then, she’s gotten Aaron Wall’s book and she know that metatags don’t do much harm–that title tags are critical and description tags, which she’s always used actually do significant good in making SE listings read well for potential visitors.

    The keyword tags can be a problem to Google, but still pull sway to other search engines and advice about using them seems to depend upon which country you’re in.

    That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. ;)
    Liz

39. December 1st, 2005 at 9:29 pm
    Martin said

    Liz,

    screw those seo experts - we’re sticking by you - I think you’re performancing very well ;-)

    I don’t think you’ve mislead anyone - until someone in Google actually says that Meta tags are useless then they do no harm at all.

40. December 1st, 2005 at 9:42 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you, kind sir,
    That little event did a lot to test and prove my confidence and I don’t mind that it happened. And I very much appreciate the community that came to my support. Now if we could just find some interesting things to talk about about blogs. ;)

    Next week, I think we’ll be seeing some more design and some more linking strategies.
    Liz

41. December 23rd, 2005 at 12:01 pm
    Ammon Johns said

    Eric said: “This ambiguity on meta tags is interesting. We have high ranking sites that use them and high ranking sites that don’t.

    The conclusion one can draw from this is: if you use them, your site wont spontaneously combust and that if you don’t use them the world wont end either.”

    Interesting conclusion. For me it lead to a different, and inescapable conclusion that the meta tags were shown to be irrelevant to the rankings, since absolutely no correlation could be found.

    If you search hard, you can find some absolute statements from two of the major search engines on exactly how they regard the Keywords meta tag. Tim Mayer of Yahoo has explained several times that Yahoo does still pay some attention to the keywords meta tag as an inclusion factor, but not in any way as a ranking factor.

    What does that mean? It means that if a word is in the keywords meta tag, your page will be included in the results of pages relevant to the word. However, it would rank absolute bottom, since the keywords meta tag has no bearing at all on where to rank a site in the results.

    For that reason, most professionals say that the only practical use of the keywords meta tag is for misspelt words that one couldn’t possibly place visibly on the page. Something where there may only be 1-30 results anyway, so ranking last out of them is still visible.

    The reason SEOs get touchy about the topic of Meta Tags is that there is so much ancient info out there that claims they are important.

    The fact is that none of the meta tags will help you rank well. The description meta tag can be helpful in making an existing high ranking read better and be more ‘clickable’ in the results, but it will not give any direct benefit to getting ranked in the first place.

    The Robots meta tags are the most abused, mostly because people don’t understand the robots exclusion standard, and that the only thing robots tags do (by design) is to *prevent* a spider from doing its job.

42. December 23rd, 2005 at 9:14 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Thank you, Ammon,
    This is a clear explanation of the issue that made a big noise and some white heat a while back. Everything you say makes total sense to me and clears up a bit of the smoke around the details of the issue. I’ve read quite a bit since then and encountered some of which you speak.

    Thanks again for taking the time for putting it so clearly here “out loud” for the world to see. :)
    Liz

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    Steve

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46. November 17th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
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47. November 20th, 2006 at 1:24 am
    Norman said

    Hi,
    I think that nowadays, both Google and Yahoo are laying much more emphasis on the off-page optimization factors, rather than the On-page ones. But yes, the TITLE tag has a lot of importance from the SEO point of view. But the Description and Keywords tag, I feel, won’t be that much useful. On the contrary if you overdo those tags, you might get blacklisted.
    Creating quality backlinks with the Targeted Keyword/s as their Anchor text counts.

    Let me know what you guys feel ’bout it

48. November 20th, 2006 at 5:29 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Norman.
    Welcome! So much has changed in a year — both in what I know and in how Google looks at things. Granted mostly the first, but still a lot of the second too. :)

    I’m so glad you bring up anchor text. Anchor text has always been important, but never so important as it is now. Yet so many folks seem to think the word here works just fine. I’ve written on that before to help bloggers know. You remind me that it might be time to do so again.

    Thanks your for your comment. :)

49. November 29th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
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50. March 27th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
    Josh said

    Meta tags are not important because they will boost your ranking — they are important for other reasons.

    The meta description is important because it is a chance for you to customize the text snippet that appears in the search engine results pages.

    Having a well-designed text snippet in the SERPs can increase your clickthrough.

    Yahoo uses meta keywords. You can try this with an experiement (which I also did on my blog) where you make a nonsense word that does not appear anywhere else on the Web and put it just in your meta keywords. After some time passes, search Yahoo for that nonsense word and your page will be the only one to appear in Yahoo. I don’t know how valuable the meta keyword is for Yahoo, but I include it because I know that they at least read it and it is factored somewhere into the rankings.

    Don’t expect meta tags to boost your rankings, but it is a good idea to include them.