Today I came across a post at Bridal Tweet that pretty clearly communicated meta-tags, relative to search engine optimization and “ranking,” which are basically the same thing, are no longer relevant.

It actually says you “no longer have to waste your time with this…”

” Meta Tag Optimization. There was a time when meta tags (invisible coding on your web pages) played a large role in a website’s search ranking. You no longer have to waste your time with this because Google has publicly stated that they now ignore these tags.”

Not so fast folks.

I disagree.

Meta-tags are alive and well and should be used as part of your overall search engine optimization strategy. While Google does say it “doesn’t use meta-tags for ranking” I think this is a little misleading.

Actually, if you don’t correctly use a well written page-title tag, that matches the search performed by someone at Google, the chances are your website/page showing up in the top ten listings is ABSOLUTELY ZERO.

Sure, some people say a page-title tag is not a meta-tag, I think differently and for no other reason, and there are plenty, but that it’s found in the exact same location as the other meta-tags between your tags.

Also, confusion over what is a tag and what isn’t a tag sometimes leads people to leave out page-title tags because “meta-tags are dead” - this is always a BIG mistake.

Another way of looking at it, and I tell my clients this, is anything you can do to a page, that is not considered cheating or manipulating, that might help a search engine determine relevancy for your page (i.e. keywords in content, meta-tags, inbound links) is a good thing.

Using meta-tags and optimizing them on your pages is a good thing and alive, well, and kicking.

I think the information Bridal Tweet posted is wrong.

It certainly is not the full story and anyone who leaves out meta-tags, who is competing against someone who IS using them, in my opinion, is at a competitive disadvantage.

Hey, don’t take my word for it. The Google Webmaster Guidelines about meta-tags are pretty clear.

More reasons to correctly use and optimize your meta-tags:

1) Other search engines still use them. Contrary to what they’d like you to believe, Google is NOT the only search engine people are using. Smart online marketers are trying to get quality traffic from as many sources as they can.

2) Even if they aren’t weighted as they once were, and this certainly is the case because now there are over 300 variables in Google’s algorithm versus 100 a few years back, they certainly still play a role in your search engine optimization strategy. I use them and I have plenty of evidence that they have a valuable impact.

3) Google might not use meta-tags for “ranking,” in other words the keywords you use in your meta-tags will not get you “top ranked,” but I’d guess that Google’s crawlers still look at them, index them, and even use them in some cases (i.e. search engine results page description snippets).

4) All of the websites I’ve got top ranked, some in extremely competitive categories, have all used meta-tags.

5) I’ve optimized meta-tags in the past and seen a site jump in rank pretty quickly. Hmm… not dead yet in my book!

Would I say that meta-tags are the magic bullet to top ranking?

No.

There is no such thing.

Ranking / search engine optimization (SEO) is more competitive than ever in the past. Every little detail and every possible variable, all optimized perfectly, gets the sites I’m working on top ranked. And one of those variables are meta-tags.

I highly recommend that anyone with a website and/or blog and marketing to brides online continue using them.

Meta-tags are NOT dead.

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and website pages, as well as managing factors outside of your website (i.e off-site factors), to acheive top rankings or positioning at Google, or other search engines, on a search engine results page.

As a result of this increased online visibility, which shows up in people’s browsers when they are searching, you get more QUALITY traffic to your website, increase your brand/company awareness, more effectively compete in the marketplace,  and ultimately increase inquiries and sales (i.e. conversion).

Many of the people I’ve talked to think just building a website and getting online will be the key to new sales and business growth. This is bad thinking and actually a mistake.

It’s not a mistake because I say so.

It’s a mistake because dozens of people have called me who tried that approach and it didn’t work. So now, they’ve been online for six to sixteen months, have little to show for it, and have a new problem - they’re six to sixteen months behind their competition. Playing catch-up on the Internet is not fun.

Q: Would you open up a new restaurant and then not advertise, market, and promote it - and it’s location?

A: No, certainly not.

But that same logic seems to get lost on the Internet.

I think it’s because in days gone by there was this mentality that the Internet was free - and a lot of people are stuck with it. Sure, it sounds good, but it’s not true.

Add onto that bogus success stories about online success and even infomercials at wee hours of the morning promising Internet millions while you “sit back, it’s on auto-pilot” on the Internet Marketing Speedway… ouch.

Here is why you probably want to develop and implement a search engine optimization strategy for your business website:

1) More Sales

2) More Leads

3) You Make It Easier For Your Existing Customers To Find You

4) You Make It Easier For NEW Customers To Find You

5) Your Existing Customer Expect To Find You

6) Don’t Let Your Existing Customer Find Your Competition (you lose sales)

7) More Visibility For Your Company, Brand, Products and Services

8) Reaching New Customers From Outside Your General Marketplace

9) Enhanced Credibility and Legitimacy

10) Testing New Products

11) Competition

12) Gives You Competitive Advantage

13) Predictable Costs

14)  Measurable ROI

15) Long Term Benefits

SEO is not a “set it and forget it” type thing. Not if you want to get your website and pages top ranked.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a process similar to building a multi-tiered wedding cake.

There is ongoing SEO, that sits on top of advanced SEO techniques, which are put on top of basic search engine optimization – or the “fundamentals.” You can’t get a top ranked website without building one layer at a time. And like the best wedding cakes, it takes the right “ingredients,” expertise, time, and patience.

Basic search engine optimization includes:

* Creating a search engine friendly, or “crawler” friendly website (design)

* Reviewing competitive sites, their current placement, their strategies (strengths, weaknesses)

* Identifying the appropriate keywords and keyword phrases

* Optimizing page content to create “relevancy” (which is what Google is primarily looking for)

* Building an optimized navigation scheme that is search engine friendly but also user-friendly

* Correctly programmed/written page title tags that are unique for each page of your website

* Correctly programmed/written meta-tags: description, keywords, robots, etc.

* Getting your website recognized by Google

* Getting ALL of the pages of your website recognized by Google (and other search engines)

* Installing Google Analytics for tracking website traffic, configuration, testing

* Installing Google Webmaster tools, configuration, testing

* Monitoring movement (i.e. are we moving up in rank, yes, no, how quickly)

* Making adjustments to pages and page title tags as necessary

* Building inbound links to the website from outside sources (very important!)

In most cases, this is a process that takes between an hour and two hours per page. Keep in mind, these are just the basics and primarily “on-site” factors.

If any of these variables are not appropriately and precisely addressed, it will adversely impact your ability to get pages at your website top ranked.

Also see: New Website Design & Development Overview