Meta Tags - How important are they?

[kimcourt]

I wonder if you can also assist with Meta Tag insertion.
Firstly, does it matter how many spaces are left between meta tags and do you use a comma or a semi-colon?
Is there a maximum number permitted on Google?
I put mine on years ago and I forgot how. I think I inserted the list in a from a choice of either "Between Head, Inside Body or Beginning of body" but I forgot the process.

I know that google has changed their search parameters, does it even pay to use meta tags anymore? Someone mentioned keywords instead and I have no idea how to insert them or where?
They also mentioned that page name was important but I wasn't sure if they meant name or title and again, or how one does either.
Fusion 12 has it mostly covered but not Fusion 7.

I'd appreciate your imput -
Thanks

[gotFusion]

Meta tags are just that. Separate tags and as such each tag should go on a separate line.

Each tag (meta description, keywords, author etc) are handled differently.

These gotFusion tutorials sort of explains it in more detail

http://www.gotfusion.com/tutorials/tut.cfm?itemID=345

http://www.gotfusion.com/tutorials/tut.cfm?itemID=4051

http://www.gotfusion.com/tutsTD/metatagdefinitions.cfm

You can put meta tags in earlier versions of Fusion by using either the masterborder or layout HTML insert options. General site wide meta tags go into the masterborder html insert and page specific ones go into the layout html insert area

This gotFusion tutorial goes over how to insert using the old method

http://www.gotfusion.com/tutorials/tut.cfm?itemID=4068

I still manually insert all meta tags, just because I always have done it this way

[kimcourt]

Thanks Mike,

I now find that google has ranked my page OK but the actual page reference is to the "body"? as follows
www.home-inspectors.com/body_services. When you click it you get a google error.
This is rather than just the regular reference to www.home-inspectors.com/services

I know I've done something wrong but cannot figure it out.
Someone mentioned that you can add keywords to both the master border and then the indivual page layout.
Do these keywords have to be entirely different?
For instance, our site is about home inspection in Ottawa - so can my keywords for the master border refer to just that theme
and each page get into more detail. Ie our services page refer to what services we offer etc in the layout??

The tuorials you suggested don't seem to address the difference.

Also does every page of my site have to mention the google revist after X days (and if so... do they have to all bear the same number?)

Thanks
K

[VitaliyKolosFTO]

I'm an SEO and I'm going to add some info on the meta tags themselves.

As a matter of fact, they have NO direct impact on your site rankings, but they do matter for your search engine result pages. It's when the user searched for your keyword (the keyword you're trying to rank for) and got to the page with a bunch of listings (usually up to 10) including yours. Now. that's where meta data comes into play. Your meta title and meta description will be the actual title and description of your page. And depending on how decent and persuasive it looks, the user decides to click on it or not.

As for meta keywords, they are not being using by major search engines such as Google and Bing. So, you pretty much don't need to bother about that.