Meta tags Keyphrases, these unknown mysteries

Despite the complex name, meta tag keyphrases are nothing strange nor scary: it is, as in the case of other meta tags (meta tag description, meta tag keywords and so on) they are a means to catalogue web pages by search engines. Simply put, meta keyphrases indicate to search engines short key phrases related to the contents of the page to which they refer: in this way this page will be well indexed and therefore more visible for those who perform searches through Google, Yahoo and the other engines.

Any additional information provided is at the webmaster's discretion. The meta tag keyphrases, compared to keywords, made up of single words, have an advantage: it has been found that those who use search engines do not usually enter a single word, but rather short sentences. The rules compilation of meta keyphrases are few, but must be followed. Beyond the technical decision to separate the groups of words with a comma or a semicolon, the choice of these phrases must be made with extreme care. They should preferably be short, made up of a maximum of three words. Given that such information does not affect layout, and remains invisible to users on the page they refer to, many webmasters think they can write anything to facilitate traffic to their site.

However, if search engines notice a mismatch of meta tags with page content and therefore of deception, they can decide to proceed with the elimination from their lists, thus preventing the site from being found. This is why it is essential to follow a sort of "ethics" and use meta tag keyphrases that refer to the topic treated within the page and preferably contain words used in it.