Spiders & META Tags

[Danny Sullivan]

> Are there any major web search engines, robots, spiders,
> etc. (such as InfoSeek, Altavista, Yahoo, Excite, etc.)
> which have decided *not* to index sites which use META tags?

No, none of the major search engines will ban your pages if they use 
meta tags. Even Excite, which does not support the tags, will still 
index the text on your page. It simply ignores anything in the meta 
tag areas. Similarly, some search engines may ignore anything in 
comment areas.

The only way you'll ever get in trouble with meta tags is by abusing 
them: repeating the same word over and over, or perhaps using 
descriptions that are not applicable to your web page. A search 
engine, it detects this abuse, may penalize your page in the 
rankings.

For most people, this is not a problem. Use meta tags on your pages 
without fear.

For more info, http://calafia.com/webmasters/meta.htm. I also be 
updating this page with more info in June, but it is pretty complete 
at the moment.

danny

--------------------------------------
Danny Sullivan, danny at calafia.com
Calafia Consulting, http://calafia.com/
>From UK: (0181) 446-0443
>From US: 011-44-181-446-0443