Both people (usually indirectly) and search engines use meta tags.
Are meta tags really that important? Individual search engines use their own judgment with regards to meta tags. Some search engines do use them. But I’ll let you in on a secret, Google keeps the specifics of everything they do a secret. They do not disclose their patented ranking algorithms. There have been numerous instances I have observed on Google (page one no less) where sites have no keyword or description tags at all. You be the judge.
Meta tags are lines of codes that are built into Internet pages. These code lines can’t be seen on the web browser (but look at what is said about the description tag, below), however, the search engine uses them to group your web pages accurately. They can have either descriptions, titles, or keywords. You don’t have to use descriptions and keywords, however your website will appear strange if you don’t use a “title” tag, because people will have “Untitled web page” in their browsers.
In order to obtain traffic (by cheating) a long time ago, people would place repetitive or irrelevant information into their meta tags — “stuffing” them. As a penalty, several search engines don’t put too much importance on keywords in meta tags, but they still look at them to be certain they have meaning. Whichever the case, your rank will probably suffer on other search engines if you lack meta tags, or have useless keywords.
The “head” section of a web page is where meta tags are found. Some people suggest using only lowercase letters in your tags, and avoid repeating terms within the keyword tag.
Generally speaking, the actual meta tag contents appear invisible; however the “description” meta tag’s contents will turn up in the majority of search engines together with the page title in the search results. Do not overdo your meta description; you can place keywords in the description tag, but try to keep language natural, in complete sentences, and keep it short and relevant.
