Meta-tags, what is the alternative?

[johnsonholding]

I have been doing some background research on meta-tags for my site and
according to what I found is that Google ignores meta-tags for the most
part (at least that is what a few people said). So what is the
alternative for getting a webpage (site) found with a search engine? I
know that keyword seem to work with Podcasting, but are meta-tags
obsolete? What is a good way of helping with a ranking or getting a
website out there that I can DIY?

 

[Steve Pugh]

I have been doing some background research on meta-tags for my site and
according to what I found is that Google ignores meta-tags for the most
part (at least that is what a few people said). So what is the
alternative for getting a webpage (site) found with a search engine?

To get found either submit your site for indexing, or get other sites
to link to you. Or both. But getting found is only the first step.

I know that keyword seem to work with Podcasting, but are meta-tags
obsolete? What is a good way of helping with a ranking or getting a
website out there that I can DIY?

Have good content that contains terms that people search for. Marking
up titles and headings appropriately helps.
Have links to your site from other sites (not link farms and other
snake oil scams).

Everything else is really just variations on the above. Or you can pay
for a listing.

Depending on the nature of your web site, marketing (offline and/or
online) can be as effective as or more effective than search engine
optimisation.

Steve

 

[Andy Dingley]

I have been doing some background research on meta-tags for my site

For all practical purposes at this stage of your development, ignore
<meta>

Use the RSS categorisation in your podcast feeds though.