Miva 5.5 meta tags useless?

[Lorel]

I don't understand the need for description and keyword meta tags in Miva 5.5 when Google doesn't use those tags for ranking. Can someone explain?

[CybrHost]

One by one, the major engines discontinued the use of meta tags as part of their main criteria. Google ignored meta tags altogether, and now only indexes Google Meta Tags. There are, however, several search engines that still read meta tags in some way.

Follow the links below to read about each Meta Tag:

Recommended Tags

Meta Content Language (non-US English ONLY)
Meta Content Type
Meta Description
Meta Language (non-US English ONLY)

Optional Tags

Meta Abstract
Meta Author
Meta Copyright
Meta Designer
Meta Google
Meta Keywords
Meta MSN (No ODP)
Meta Title

Not Recommended Tags

Meta Content Script Type
Meta Content Style Type
Meta Distribution
Meta Expires
Meta Generator
Meta MS Smart Tags
Meta Pragma No-Cache
Meta Publisher
Meta Rating
Meta Refresh
Meta Reply-To
Meta Resource Type
Meta Revisit After
Meta Robots
Meta Set Cookie
Meta Subject
Meta VW96.ObjectType


--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - info@cybrhost.com
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[Pete McNamara]

The meta description tag is yet another example of what Google says it does is different to what it actually does. It does use the meta description as the description in the SERPs sometimes. I have been observing this for at least 5 years, despite the continual Google spiel that they ignore it.

Yahoo takes both he meta description and meta keywords tags into account in its rankings.

You can ignore both meta tags and it won't be the end of the world but if you are fighting for every ranking position you can get, then you need both.

Then, there are a raft of other search engines some of which definitely take one or both into account.

Finally, the robots meta tag is very useful under certain circumstances. For this tag, "Not Recommended" should perhaps be better read as "Do not try this at home".