Meta Tags etc

[jazzy]

How important are meta tags?
I submitted my site to Google and the major search engines around 3-4 months ago the only one which has listed it is alta vista.
What tags etc are important for these search engines particularly Google?
Or is it a case of paying for a main listing?

 

[adam_uk]

metas arnt used much anymore spiders are being used more than anything well thats what ive seen

 

[jazzy]

Is there any way to improve on how the spiders will improve the site rating?

 

[adam_uk]

have words releated to the site so car and lorry are one topic but car and sex arnt so if google see car and sex on one page you get a crud rating

also google aparently cant spider php pages

 

[deadserious]

Yes alot of text with words related to your site and the title of your site. Also having links with words related to your site leading to more links and more links are good. I think google will index .php files, but they don't seem to index urls with php sessions in them. Headers or bold text is also a good thing I believe. I think a couple of the key things are the content on your site and links to your site from other sites.

With google it's not a case of paying. If you submitted your site 3 months ago, and it's still not listed, it probably wouldn't hurt to submit it again.

 

[jazzy]

One other question!
Are meta tags allowed on all search engines?
Was told they might no list you if you have hidden tags!

 

[deadserious]

I'm no search engine guru, but I haven't heard of being penalized on any search engines for including meta tags in your pages.

And I don't believe Meta tags are hidden, so maybe you're talking about doorway pages or something else?