keyword commas

[Peter Hibbit]

Hi,

I usually put a comma and a space between my metatag keywords, do I have to?

If not,could I put, for example:

uk hotels uk

and come up on 'uk hotels' and 'hotels uk'?

peter

[mjames]

I don't think it matters, really, as long as you have meta tags that follow the general guidelines.

[James]

I usually seperate my keywords with commas and I think that means any combination of those words is usable.
Not positive though..

[JK_Bowman]

Hey Gang,

Here are the arguments against using commas:

1) If the search engines read the commas, the commas take up additional space.

For example, if the search engine will read the first 150 characters of keywords (just for an example) everytime I put a comma in I am using up one additional character that I didn't have to use. Consequently, if you don't use commas you may be able to get one or two additional keywords in.

2) If the engines are reading commas the commas may inhibit your abilty to form keyword phrases.

For example compare.

saltwater, fishing reels,
vs.
saltwater fishing reels

In that example, someone searching for "saltwater fishing reels" would be taken to the site that did not use commas because it formed a complete phrase.

For the term, fishing reels - both are on an equal footing.

And take a closer look. In the second example in addition to having individual keywords we have three phrases.

saltwater fishing
fishing reels
saltwater fishing reels

FYI - Danny Sullivan says there is no reason to use commas.

[Peter Hibbit]

Hi,

Thanks! The article that made me wonder had that example in about the fishing reels.

I think I'll remove my commas.

Ta to all

peter

[PinoyMaster]

Well, I guess you could use a little bit of combination. For example of one of your keyword meta tags in the webpage would look like this:

1. Common tag
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">

2. No commas between keywords
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1 keyword2 keyword3">

3. With commas but without spaces in between
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1,keyword2,keyword3">


Think about it. I suggest you should use the first one on your main pages especially the homepage to make sure you're on the safe side.

[Son Nguyen]

I also put commas between keywords! Since that's how the search engines can separate keywords. So if you mean keyphrases, remove some commas.
But if the tag is too long without commas, it is considered one input. Imagine keyword tag can be up to 800-1000 characters!

[dreuby]

I've asked about this too - and the opinion seems mixed. But all the web-page checkers that I've tried (including on-line ones) all flag my meta tags as an error if I don't have commas. I'm just about to put all my commas back ...
I think!