Advantages and disadvantages of Meta tags: including ways to overcome the disadvantages

 Hello everybody! This blog about advantages and disadvantages of Meta tags.

"Advantages of using the meta description tag

• It’s believed to still be used by some lesser-known search engines. Having a meta description tag on each page may give those pages an SEO advantage with those search engines.
• It appears in search results with some search engines, especially if it contains the keyword searched for. (Search engines sometimes display part of the meta description tag content along with a page snippet, or just a snippet, depending on the search engine and what is searched for.) Well-written description tags that appear with search results may be better at attracting searchers to the page than snippets of text from the page.

Disadvantages of using the meta description tag

• Sometimes snippets are better at providing exactly what searchers are looking for than page summaries, especially if the page has a lot of content.
• Time spent working on meta description tags is time taken away from working on page content, which is more important." (PEACH, 2008)

Solution:

Add more excerpts to the description because it works better than describing the entire page, especially if the page has a lot of content and in general do not spend a lot of time working with the description.

"Advantages of using the meta keywords tag

• It may carry a little weight with Yahoo.
• It may be a factor with some lesser-known search engines.
• If you list misspellings of words that you use on the page, it may help your page appear in Yahoo search results for those misspellings.

Disadvantages of using the meta keywords tag

• When you use it, you’re telling your competitors exactly what keywords you’re optimizing each page for. Competitors can take those lists that you carefully crafted and optimize their own sites for the same keywords.
• Time spent working on meta keyword tags is time taken away from optimizing your site for those keywords, which is more important."(PEACH, 2008)

Solution:

Do not spend a lot of time on keywords, because your competitors will be able to use them later, and the less time you spend on it, the less time it will take to optimize the site

Reference:

PEACH. (2008) Meta tags and search engine optimization. [online] Available at: <https://www.webhostingtalk.com/blog/meta-tags-and-search-engine-optimization/#Advantages_of_using_the_meta_keywords_tag> [Accessed 21 January 2023]