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Clients are always asking me about the value of met tag decscription and keywords. Usually it's along the lines of "My (webmaster, IT team, Content Manager, Site Manage, 12 year-old nephew) told me don't bother with meta tags".

The basic rule here is applicable to more than just SEO: better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. As long as you don't keyword stuff or otherwise spam these tags, you're not going to do yourself any harm, and you might just do some good.

Meta Keywords: no more than 15 terms with the most relevant terms first. Don't use terms that don't occur in the page. Avoid repetition.

Meta Description: Keep it short, direct, to the point, and page specific. No longer then 25 - 30 words. Some engines (Temoa) use the meta description as the blurb that goes under the link. So write an accurate description of the page: "All about Joe Schmoe Widgets."

MSN
They haven't taken an official position in their Webmaster Help section, but the general consensus seems to be that MSN does place some value on these tags.

Yahoo
I couldn't find anything "official" but the consensus seems to be that Yahoo uses them, especially the description tag.

Google
The industry opinion is that Google doesn't bother with meta keywords at all, and that it MIGHT give some credibility to meta description. However, while good meta tags probably won't help in Google, bad ones can hurt. If Google sees words in the meta description and keywords that it doesn't find on the page, that can have a negative affect.

The Bottom Line
Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!



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