Meta keywords... how many is too many?

[Mouse77e]

hi all,

meta tags... how many keywords should i be using? i have a potential to use over 400 words or phrases and i think thats a few too many... and i have a feeling Mr Google and his chum Mr Yahoo may be a little confused or even put off... any comments?

Mouse

[NogDog]

I think you'll find Mr Google pretty much ignores meta keywords these days due to the abuse they've received over the years (like people putting in 400 keywords). Your search ranking is going to be determined by the displayable text, in particular text in the higher level headings (H1 and H2), as well as the number and search ranking of pages which link to yours.

Just use the meta keyword tag as it was intended: list a few of the really important keywords which define what that specific page is about, not every word that shows up on the page.

[WebJoel]

that META tags with more than 56 words tends to get 'snubbed', and if a particular word is used more than 5 times in one tag (e.g., <.meta~ "baseball, sports, baseball games, baseball stuff, Babe Ruth, Baseball, baseball collections, basebase hall of fame, baseball season (etc.)> causes the word "baseball" to be culled from being relevant (it's considered to be a form of spam, overloading a meta tag with the same word).
I do not recall WHERE I read all of this, some SEO ('search engine optimization') site I think. I guess that it makes sence, 'cause otherwise someone could build a terrible site and make the background white, and fill the background with WHITE TEXT saying "baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball (etc etc etc)" and get themselves listed very highly when in fact their site has little/nothing to do with baseball... This has been done before. I still see some 'bad sites' that try this and it really p.o.'s someone whom is looking for something and this un-related site comes up in the top 10... )
Some hosts like lycos/geocities/yahoo! might even catch sites doing this and if it's a violation of their TOS, actually delete the site for 'abuse'.

For search engine optimization, it is FAR better to create sites with relevant data, and correct code of course, use GOOD headers which include words pertinant to your site, and here's a big one, -make your links actually SAY something (not <.a href="thebestsiteontheweb.com">CLICK HERE<./a> where "CLICK HERE" is what Search Engines/'Bots/Spiders actually read (and is essentially without any substainative meaning).
Make your links more like <.a href="thebestsiteontheweb.com">The Best Site On The Web<./a>. THAT alone probably does MUCH MORE to promote your site ("The Best Site On The Web", or whatever! ) than any META tag does these days! And, use a meta robots statements too, to "index, follow", if you really want your site to be 'crawled' by web-bots.

I could name a quarter-dozen+ other tricks (sic!) that I know to improving SEO ranking, but that is off-topic. Keeping your meta-data short, concise AND using good & relevant content will get your site indexed quickly and highly.

-Best!

-Joel

[knowj]

dont search engins only take the slightest bit of noteice of the first 14 or something.

[pcthug]

The majority of Search Engines will take note of your keywords, however they will not use them to order there results (Well at least Google doesnt).
For the best results try to sticking to around 14 or so Keywords
And spend the majority of your time perfecting your other meta tags, primarly the Title tag, However the Description tag has recently become a major playa as well.