The Declining Importance of Meta Keywords, Description Tags, Alt Tags, etc.

Meta description tags are used on web pages,whether or not the keywords used in the
usually at the top of the page, and are hiddenkeyword description are in fact mentioned
from view of everyone except the searchthroughout the webpage.
engines. They used to hold quite a bit of weight inAlt tags still remain an important addition to your
the search engine ranking process of websites,webpage, as they describe the images which are
but are not used as much anymore. This isused throughout your site. It's important to include
because people would pack as many keywordsalt tags so that search engines can recognize all
as they felt necessary into this hidden code onof the images that have been used throughout
the webpage, and soon the ranking system usedand where they came from. Alt tags that also
by the search engines was no longer as valid as itcontain keywords, can also help to improve your
had been in the past.keyword frequency, which in turn will improve
So, the question is now raised, should I includeyour search engine rankings.
Meta description tags, alt tags, title tags and MetaAlthough many of these Meta description tags no
keywords in my webpage? The simple answer islonger carry as much weight in the process of
yes, why not; every little bit helps when it comesdetermining search engine positioning, they do still
to improving the likelihood of positioning yourcarry benefits among some of the search
website into the top search results. If you breakengines. It's important to remember that if you
down the importance of each of the Metainclude keywords in any description tag,
description tags, different search engines will putparticularly the alt tags, that you also include them
more weight into some of them then others.often throughout the body of the actual webpage.
Google (TM) for example ignores most of theseThis way, when the search engine crawler
Meta description and Meta keyword tags, andcompares these Meta tags to the content
puts more focus on the keywords that are usedthroughout the rest of the page, they will match
in the actual content of a webpage. Some searchup, leaving your site with higher credibility, which
engines, that still use keyword description tags inwill hopefully result in higher page and search
their search engine crawls, will often verifyresult rankings.