From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Dec 7 19: 9:13 2000 From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 7 19:09:11 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp04.primenet.com (smtp04.primenet.com [206.165.6.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BE1637B400 for ; Thu, 7 Dec 2000 19:09:11 -0800 (PST) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp04.primenet.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id UAA02495; Thu, 7 Dec 2000 20:05:04 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr08.primenet.com(206.165.6.208) via SMTP by smtp04.primenet.com, id smtpdAAAmYaaQe; Thu Dec 7 20:04:54 2000 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr08.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA02321; Thu, 7 Dec 2000 20:08:52 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <200012080308.UAA02321@usr08.primenet.com> Subject: Re: off topic in chat? Search Engines question To: brooks@one-eyed-alien.net (Brooks Davis) Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 03:08:52 +0000 (GMT) Cc: chip@wiegand.org (chip), chat@FreeBSD.ORG (chat@FreeBSD.ORG) In-Reply-To: <20001206180631.A15059@Odin.AC.HMC.Edu> from "Brooks Davis" at Dec 06, 2000 06:06:31 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: tlambert@usr08.primenet.com Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > > I have been asked to put some new meta keywords on a web > > site I made, and the client wants to use almost 30. I have > > tried to explain to them that is probably too many. > > I have emailed several search engine admins asking them > > what they consider an appropriate amount, or max number of > > keywords in the meta tags. > > What are the opinions of the people on this list of this topic? > > Meta tags may well be dead. Google doesn't use them because they are > basicaly useless (99.999% of sites with META keywords just make them up > to get hits.) I suspect other search engines will be moving in the > same direction since everyone is moving towards a model more like > google's then like early search engines. See: http://register-it.netscape.com/O=wsg/content/searchtips.html There really isn't a limit, but you should keep them focussed; Netscape suggests using common "creative" spellings, as well as plurals, etc., of your keywords. The description portion is limited to 200 (or truncated to 150) characters by some search engines. For brain-damaged search engines, like google and IBM's "Intelligent Miner", both of which I find to be worse than useless for searching when I already know the lexicography for what I want (almost always), they suggest using your keywords early on on your page, and suggest registering multiple pages when you have otherwise thinly related content, rather than trying to get your entire site listed by the keywords on one page. Personally, I'm sticking with Altavista... NB: The more keywords you use, the more likely your site is to be considered in a particular category related to the keyword, which can trigger filtering spiders to include your page in prohibition lists based on content, as well. Your best bet is to keep the keyword list short and relevent to your audience (sex sites and other frequently filtered content can ignore this, since they are going to get into the filtering lists, no matter what). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message