Search engine meta tags - deux

In my previous post about the relevance of search engine meta tags I claimed that the keywords meta tag was almost useless these days. As a follow up, I thought I'd show you a real-world example.

Since I'm into photography, and since Ted's have finally decided to put their camera catalogue online, and since Ted's are a good example of a website still using the keywords meta tag, why not start there?

The Canon EOS 350D is probably the one digital camera I'd like to own, if I had a few spare bucks. It's pretty much at the top end, if you're after an amateur SLR. But I don't want to turn this into a camera review, there's plenty of those out there already.

Ted's website was built by PowerFront who, amongst other things, sell content management systems. In their "case study", PowerFront proudly proclaim that:

"Ted"s Camera Stores have used PowerFront since 2001 and are getting results. Today you will find Teds either at the top of the list or in second place if you search Google Australia for 'digial printing'. Try "Camera Store" world wide and Ted"s appears in the first three. Each camera is indexed in Google, which brings high volumes of traffic to the site."

From what I know about the way Google indexes sites, the second sentence is simply untrue, but that's perhaps a future topic. The last sentence attracted my attention in particular:

Each camera is indexed in Google, which brings high volumes of traffic to the site.

The Canon EOS 350D product page at Ted's has the following meta description and keywords:

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="canon eos 350d 18-55mm black - start features list canon eos350d amp efs 18-55mm zoom kit now only 1499 95 after 150 cash back conditions apply font Teds Camera Store - Buy online from one of the largest Photographic Retailers in Australia. D'place for Digital. Digital cameras, digital accessories, printers, digital video, Agfa printing, top brand">

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="canon, 18-55mm, black, start, features, eos350d, conditions, apply, teds, teds camera store, australia, digital camera, digital, camera, slr, digital printing, digital slr, camcorder, digtal video, cheap, digital memory, specials, buy, pentax, sony, olympus, kodak, canon, fuji, minolta, nikon, digital accessories, compact flash, memory stick, sd card, xd card, photography, digital ph">

Notice how Ted's content managers have put in a whole bunch of unrelated meta keywords and unrelated meta description words for the Canon EOS 350D? This usually indicates an inadequate understanding of their purpose and typically results in inappropriate usage and misleading results:

  • Why mention "agfa printing" in the description of the Canon camera? Why mention printers?
  • Why would I want the Canon EOS 350D page when I'm searching for memory sticks, xd cards, camcorders or even worse: an Olympus, Minolta or Nikon camera?
  • What do the words "font" and "start features" have to do with anything?

All these irrelevant and misleading words actually have a negative effect in terms of search engine rankings. In order to prove that meta keywords are no longer relevant, I've taken their sample and tried searching for the following on the major search engines:

+"sd card" +"memory stick" +"compact flash" +"xd card" +"digital ph"

The results are pretty much predictable:

  • Google search produces 6 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • MSN search produces 5 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • Yahoo! search produces 4 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • AltaVista search produces 4 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • Ask Jeeves search produces 10 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • AllTheWeb search produces 4 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • LookSmart search produces 3 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • AOL search produces no results at all.

Altering my search query to include the actual camera as well:

+"canon eos" +"sd card" +"memory stick" +"compact flash" +"xd card" +"digital ph"

Produces the following results:

  • Google search produces 1 result, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • MSN search produces 1 result, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • Yahoo! search produces 1 result, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • AltaVista search produces 1 result, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • Ask Jeeves search produces 10 results, with Ted's ranked fifth.
  • AllTheWeb search produces 1 result, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • LookSmart search produces 3 results, but no Canon EOS 350D at Ted's.
  • AOL search produces no results at all.

Ask Jeeves is the only engine which produced a result. Unfortunately, clicking on the result links won't take you to the Ted's page for the Canon EOS 350D. Instead, the Ask Jeeves search results point you to a different Ted's page which shows Nikon, Pentax and Konica cameras as well.

Conclusion?

Teoma, which powers Ask Jeeves, seems to be the only engine tested which actually uses meta keywords as well as the meta description when it indexes a website. But since, according to the latest Nielsen NetRatings, it attracts a global audience of 1.6%, it seems like a total waste of time including them.

Especially when you get them wrong anyway.

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About the author

Ivan's mugshotI'm Ivan Lutrov and I'm the owner of Lutrov Interactive. I have 25 years of experience producing interactive work and I create cost effective business websites that are simple, engaging and easy to use. I practice what I preach and I say what I really think, even if it's sometimes not what you want to hear. Subscribe to the Lutrov Interactive feed via RSS and follow me on Twitter.