How important is META Tagging?

When I got my B.S. for Web Design in 2004, SEO wasn't even covered. It was common knowledge that, if you wanted to be ranked, you'd use META Description and Keywords to help the search engine determine where to place you.

As the search engine algorithms became more complex though, it seems as like this technique has lost its effectiveness - I've actually seen a couple SEO companies advertise "Look Ma, No META Tags!!" on their websites!

Are META Tags obsolete?

Eeh. Not quite.

Meta Keywords: [DEAD] this tag has been removed from most, if not all, of the major search engines' algorithms, as early as 2002!!! It's basically a waste of time to use, so cut back on the extra bytes it'll add to your pages

Meta Description: [STILL KICKING] this tag is still important. It allows you to dictate how your site will be described on the search results page. If ommitted, search engines will "do their best" to describe your site based on its contents.

Welcome

Hi. My name's Rob. I'm beginning my journey to be come an internet marketing/search engine optimization expert - at step one, and plan on documenting my findings, links & resources, and results here along the way.

I'm a web developer (almost 10 years now), so I've got a pretty good nose for sniffing out what's legitimate, and what's a waste of a click - maybe I'll same someone else some time.