What’s a webmaster to do?
Once again, SEO experts, you see there is nothing you can possess which Google cannot take away… (Photo: flickr.com)
If you’ve heard the news from the Google Webmaster Central Blog, then you know that Google is not currently using keyword meta tag information from Web sites when determining their ranking in the Google search engine. Matt Cutts of Google’s Search Quality Team gives the example of two hypothetical E-commerce businesses. One day, the Webmaster for one company discovers that the competition has copied some of their keyword meta tag terms, including the name of their business. Ten years ago, such a discovery may have been something to worry about. However, at least as far as Google is concerned, keyword meta tags are unimportant. Officially – at least as of September 2009 – Google does not factor keyword meta tags into search rankings.
For custom searches, it may still be useful
“Google.com disregards keyword metatags,” says Cutts. However, the Google Search Appliance has “the ability to match meta tags.” But that’s an enterprise search, not your standard, everyday Google search. Now, factors like the number of links pointing to a page are important. Stuffing your keyword meta tags with irrelevant terms and hoping Google searches will pick up on it doesn’t work. Too much abuse led Google years ago to ignore keyword meta tags.
No meta tags, then?
Not exactly. Cutts points webmasters to this discussion of meta tags in Google.com’s support section. There are numerous meta tags that Google continues to recognize, such as the description. Although it isn’t a part of the ranking algorithm, description can help shape the quality of traffic a Web site receives. So using the right words to describe your pages is always a good idea.
What’s the key to ranking on Google?
There are different ways to answer that question, as well as numerous different theories. However, it is quite clear that well-written content that the most people find valuable (material that gets backlinks) is vital. For your E-commerce business, good content and good SEO principles is essential.
If you’d like to see what Adworkz can do for your Web site’s ranking and SEO, click here.
Related Video:
[youtube url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU"]
