meta tags question - on the way out??

[shellyblake]

I work w/ a lot of Realtors & one recently attended a seminar wherein the presenter told them "if you are working w/ a web designer that still uses meta tags - run in the opposite direction as fast as you can!"
Of course I have no idea what he told them would be replacing meta tags - but I am curious to know - is there a new trend in "coding sites for search engines" that I haven't heard about? Are meta tags on their way out?
I told my client that if there is something new I hadn't heard about it yet & that for the time being, we still need good meta tags!
TIA,
Shelly.
P.S. This type of thing happens ALL the time in reference to Realtors - someone is ALWAYS calling themselves the expert about something & then doing a presentation to Realtors & they just eat this stuff up! I really hate not being in "the know" - even if the info is bogus!

[Jason]

Hi Shelly,

It's true that meta tags aren't used the same way that they once were as far as search engine positioning goes, however, it doesn't mean they should be excluded from your page. Although some search engines sometimes use meta tags to determine SPAMers, and index flooders, they can still have their place. For example, the title bar at the top of the page (that blue strip), and the tab down below in the tray bar, are labeled by the meta tags of the site. Additionally, some search engines still use the meta tag content to display your site's description.

A big factor in today's indexing techniques though, is link popularity. Search engines will look for links to your site from other sites, it figures the more people that link to you, the better your site is. On AltaVista you can check how many people have links to your site by typing in link:"http://www.123webmaster.com" .

Search engines are changing in other ways though, it's getting harder and harder to find a search engine that isn't either moving to a hand indexed directory system, listing pay per click links first, or selling the top positions straight out. The search engines aren't what they use to be, but there's still some good potential left in them yet. Use your meta tags un-abusively, and they'll do ya good.

[Dr. Web]

Shelly,

Jason has made the point clear. Nothing says using meta tags for search engine refrence will hurt your page in any way. What the "expert" probably was suggesting is listing your site with search engines manually. Even that can take a few weeks to become effective, and it might not put you realitors website up in the "top 10."

In any event, search queries are not generally that effective anyway. If you want people to visit the website, use some good old advertising, word of mouth, trade links with other likeminded sites, referrals, buisiness cards...signs....chicken scratch on a napkin!

Relying on a search engine to bring on the masses.......it can be quite dissapointing.

here is a free search engine submitter if you want to try it:

http://submit-it.com/

and some more cool links:

http://www.volcanic-design.com/volc_links.htm

[Fallen Angel Lord]

Tags should still be there, however, they aren't that important.Link popularity is the most important nowdays.