What are keywords and meta tags? Well, keywords are part of meta tags, and are very important to any web site that wants to be "found" on the Internet. Meta tags are a few lines of code that allow search engines such as MSN, Yahoo, or Google to understand what your web site is about!
Using meta tags is one way of enhancing the site's usability and increase the chances of getting listed by search engines. Many search engines do not "rank" your web site based on your meta tags anymore (at one time meta tags were used for search engine ranking purposes), however, having these tags included on your HTML will tell the search engine what your thoughts are on your site, what keywords are relevant and most important, the title of your site, and a small description that many search engines use as a search result description.
One of the most important tags within your meta tags is the Title meta tag. The title tag should include your most important keyword or keyphrase. The title of your web site, most of the time, will appear on search results from search engines and in a surfer's bookmark or favorites. Therefore, you should select a descriptive title, that includes your most important keyword or keyphrase.
The Description meta tag is also a very important tag since many search engines will use the description your provide for search results. This is a very creative tag, as you need to describe your web site in 20 words or less (we highly recommend you do not use more than 20 words).
The Keyword meta tag includes targeted keywords for your visitors to find your web site. If you want Internet visitors to reach your site by searching for New York City real estate, this keyphrase should be included in your keyword tag. This tag should include specific terms, plurals, and common misspellings. Although you do not need to use a comma to separate these terms (just use a space between words), it can also be used to separate your keywords and keyphrases. Your keywords tag should be different on every page, specific to each topic on each page.
Choosing meta tags can be difficult, but you should spend time going over them and making sure they fit your site. You should never falsify keywords or descriptions, repeat keywords needlessly, steal other's meta tags, or any form of "keyword spamming". Search engines will catch you with your tricks and ban you from their search results. Do I need to express how bad that is?
Although meta tags are not visible to your web visitors (unless they decide to view your source code), search engines will often turn to your meta tags to understand your site a bit better, and to compare your meta tags with what they have found within your site (content, alt tags, etc.). I include these meta tags in every web site designed. Search engine optimization is very important to any site, whether it is a personal or business site. Therefore I include meta tags (title, description and keywords) in every site I design.