The Sticky for Meta Description, keywords, keyword density, and title tags

Updated 2011!

Questions about meta tags and title elements routinely come through SEO Chat. Here are the largely accepted answers for these elements.


Title Element (some call it the Title Tag): Exceptionally important. Use it for page description, brand recognition, keyword placement. Want to know how many characters? Go count yourself in Google results. Google can read more, but places more prominence on the keywords at the start. Do'nt stuff unnatural keywords in a title element, make it concise and concrete.

meta description tags: IMO no benefit to ranking. IF it's off topic and unrelated Google may opt to use your content to generate their own description (meta description tags' only use are to provide a snippet of the content in the search results). We can almost certainly conclude you don't get a ranking benefit from having the tag.

The only benefit is that it may provide the impetus for more clicks then related result with an unclear description.

However most disagree whether this is actually true since tests are inconclusive. From my perspective it DOES help a small minority and is therefore beneficial for said reasons above. If you, however, have targeted content that will do well as a description, no need for the tag.

From my tests on eye-tracking and CTR the TITLE element is usually what people will view and not the description tag. Having said THAT we still have evidence that descriptions induce clicks for the top three results.

meta keyword tag: Useless. Ignore.

keyword density

There are some reputable SEOs who continue to write that keyword density is relevant. Fact is, there is no magic % you need to follow. You don't start writing content with a keyword density in mind, but rather, your content winds up with a final keyword density score (which likely plays little to zero role in helping your rank.)

If you have done the correct market research then you know what your target market wants to read. From there you will be writing relevant material based on demand and not based on what you think the best 'keywords' are.

Moral of the story? Write natural and value added content to your target market and never worry about keyword density. If you ever start with 'keyword density' or hear someone talk about it then run in th eother direction, these individuals at best don't understand or practice proper business analytics/research.

At the end of the day it's about your content. if you pay attention for LASTING and VALUABLE content to your target market then you will NATURALLY incur keywords throughout the document/page.

Write for people, optimize for engines, write great content for people, lasting content, valuable content. Stop WASTING time on densities. It's so 2003 .

The only other meta tags that can be useful (there are a lot of meta tags that people stuff in, few are required, even fewer have any benefit) are:

-Content Declaration (usually UTF-8)
-Nofollow NoIndex (for an added layer of protection to prevent bots from visiting/indexing pages)
-Canonical (again, added layer of protection to clarify what pages Google should treat as 'correct')
-NOODP (if your descriptions are pulled from DMOZ)

Other than the first the rest are really unnecessary and none have an impact on your rankings.

great info! I must admit that I'm still in keyword density. I always rely on it cause I don't want to guess if my optimization is good or bad. I can tell that is good if it has a good density. I guess my method is wrong. Better change it by now and think of other ways!

better think of this one! Bookmarked this page!

i think that in all the meta tags the description is important from all the meta tags.
and of course the most important is the title..

i think many seo masters here. and they will help newbie like me about seo. i am still confuse about keywords density. i hope in this forum i can learn about it. thanks

Your confusion is warranted... it doesn't work!

Among the other topics is that one: http://forums.seochat.com/search-engine-optimization-28/on-page-optimisation----an-introductory-guide-216119.html

I have to disagree with two things:

1. I DO find sticky threads very useful and I DO READ them. I just can't make out why on this earth anybody would not read a sticky if the information is there and considering the fact its been made a sticky by the experts and they must have found great value in the same.

2. I don't think Title tag can become irrelevant ever. Atleast not from users point of view as we would always need to know what the page is all about upfront and search engines can never discount this fact so can't remove it from a ranking factor IMO.

You can say it applies to meta description as well but it happened meta description had scope to be spammed heavily and this is not the case with title.

After reading the comments from the expert i have also started adding meta keywords and description to web pages...

Let see how this would help me to rank in the SE.

Did you actually read those comments or did you write a typo...

"After reading the comments from the expert i have also started REMOVING meta keywords and description to web pages..."

Is 75% fine? Is 50% fine? Is 95% fine? What about keyword stuffing? Site with 75% in 400 words?

Can noobs can take this literally and act on it?

So why so many threads on here about KW stuffing? Google webmaster terms mention kw stuffing too?

Ya... here's literally...

I have a site with a single word on the page... that's 100%.

With 3 words and single word phrases is 75%

With 2 words and single word phrases is 50%...

...are you literally saying that these precentages are keyword stuffing?

Noobies are not as stupid as you think they are... when you said "write naturally" or "write for the reader" they don't "naturally think you mean"...

keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am... keyword I, keyword am, keyword not, keyword as, keyword stupid, keyword as, keyword you, keyword think, keyword I, keyword am...

are they?

This isn't sarcasm?

You actually believe this crap that noobies would take a 500 word page and make 375 the same phrase?

Ignore me all you want... I write for everyone else...

Hey all those that still read this post because they are ignoring me...

This guys post is the most idiotic I've ever seen on this forum... absolute pure crap!

In fact what was said was "stuff all you want" - if you want to; because it won't make you rank any better than 0%... it makes no difference... but obvious some people that thinks "an ignore list stops people from posting"... can't read and don't have any common sense.

This is sarcasm "You should become a milkman... it suits your intellect!"

Two insults to me at once and you never knew me? "milkman" to me is racist! I am not natively english speaking therefore I was only asking questions the best way my english understands and the context may not be correct but you welcome me with insults?

I had not ignored you yet but this is true now!

Undercover SEO... Welcome to SEO Chat. As you have likely noted... our members are quite outspoken. The one thing I want to pass along to you is that many of the big name SEOs here in the West started right here at SEO Chat.

WE TEACH SEO... If you want to learn the latest things in SEO, stick around. Take everything you have learned about SEO and put it in a basket or bowl to be stirred and filtered. MOST OR ALL of the SEO "rules" from a year or more ago are no longer true. SEO is changing rapidly...

Stay with us here and learn, teach, study, and experiment. We will argue... sometimes get angry... but always learn.

Again, welcome to SEO Chat.

Thankyou SEO_AM! Yes I came to register here to learn and share. Not to be a figure of insults after I only made 2 posts? Outspoken is good but why ridicule new members like so? This Fathom person has insulted me and twisted my words for no reason. I spent lots of time reading rules and this should not be a welcome to noobs? I do not feel welcome here at all.

Fathom... believe it or not... is one of the most competent SEOs walking the planet today... He is a pain in the a**... but we love the old bastard.