SEO HTTP-header vs. HTTP-body

[Skemcin]

I'm going to disclaim that I've posted the following thread in a couple forums - all of which have not helped by retracting posted statements after thinking twice about them or otherwise saying I am confusing one thing with another (which I am most certainly not).Please, do not reply unless you are pretty certain you have the correct answer or you have some more intriguing points to make on the subject. This is a rather important conclusion I am trying to come to so I need to be certain it is correct.Here is my original post:

I've searched around a little and I can't seem to find a clear answer on this one.I am curious to know if <cfheader> is any better or worse to use in place of <meta> with respect to SEO things like description and keywords.I know <cfheader> is better for things like cache-control, pragma, last-modified, and expires. But do search engines prefer the description and keyword information in the header or body of the HTTP request?In other words, which is better:<meta name="description" content="[text]"><meta name="keywords" content=[text]"">or<cfheader name="description" value="[text]"><cfheader name="keywords" value="[text]">Do search engines treat these any differently?Thanks in advance.

You can see the responses here:http://forums.crystaltech.com/index.php/topic,33461.0.htmland here:http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/for...hreadid=1378634The short of it is, like the title of this post suggests, I'm trying to find out if keywords and descriptions are seen by spiders and bots if they are passed in the HTTP-header instead of where they are traditionally passed in the HTTP-body by way of <meta> tags.Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Ingolme]

The only thing I'm certain about is that Google does not pay attention to the keywords information, no matter how you give it to them. And most likely will even rank your page lower if it finds keywords in the tag that aren't on your page.Google does use the description <meta> tag, so it's safe to use that. But not all search engines use it (I think MSN search doesn't).In general, I think that if you want to give keywords to the search engine, just make sure the content of your site is rich in the keywords you want to give.

[Skemcin]

Thanks for the reply. Some of my other posts in the links I reference include comments I've made eluding to what you point out. You are correct, google doesn't look at meta tags for keywords or descriptions and although Google doesn't penalize you fro not using related words, you only hurt your own pages by including erroneous keywords and phrases because of the limit of characters spiders/bots allow - leaving you less room to put useful stuff in there.The idea of even using <meta> tags for keywords and descriptions is seemly going to fall away - but as a best practice and to follow rules lesser know engines still follow, I still need to incorporate them. And yes, they content and other SEO techniques are used appropriately. I'm not a big fan of manipulating pages, I set them up with general SEO provisions but tend to let the content, traffic, reputation, and marketing work the site up. But the client pays the bills and if I can prove putting the information in the header is either good or bad, then I can move on and wrap that area up.

[aspnetguy]

The only thing I'm certain about is that Google does not pay attention to the keywords information, no matter how you give it to them. And most likely will even rank your page lower if it finds keywords in the tag that aren't on your page.Google does use the description <meta> tag, so it's safe to use that. But not all search engines use it (I think MSN search doesn't).In general, I think that if you want to give keywords to the search engine, just make sure the content of your site is rich in the keywords you want to give.

It is not a matter of whether it is safe to use those tags or not it is a matter of whether a particular search engine ignores them or not. So you should always fill them in.Skemcin I am doing some research hang on a sec.

[Skemcin]

Looking forward to the help aspnetguy - I like the idea of tucking the meta data in the HTTP header since that effectively removes that information from the rendered page - therefore not appearing when someone clicks "view-source". The client really likes that idea - haing all the SEO stuff in place but not so obvious is appealing.[me on edge of seat]

[aspnetguy]

Based on the information have read, mind you it is not extensive and I can't garauntee it is 100% accurate (http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/metatags.detail.html), it appears you should use cfheader whenever dealing with meta HTTP-EQUIV information. The article does not mention placing this infomation in the HTTP header when dealing with meta NAME information. So, I deduce that it is best to use the meta tag in cases of SEO.The article does mention some search engines ignore HTTP headers in some cases in favor of the meta tags. My guess would be that Google would check both but that I can't confirm.If you still need further information I would recommend trying to hunt down Matt Cutts. He should know the answer in realtion to Google. His blog is http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/. There is no contact page but he does have links to his FriendFeed http://friendfeed.com/mattcutts and Twitter http://twitter.com/mattcutts. He is usually very helpful in clarifying Google's postion on many issues and what you should do to get the best results from Google.EDIT: Also if you want to know a concrete answer for MSN or Live search let me know. I have a contact at Microsoft that can get that answer.

[Skemcin]

Thats for the post - I think I read the same article which is partly why I went on this quest - I became curious when it did not mention anything about regular meta tags. If its not too much to ask, anything the MSN guy could provide woudl be interesting. I'm waiting to hear back from my Google Appliance rep to see how they treat it.I'll post my final conclusion here so put this to bed - hopefully its before I go to bed.Thanks again ANG (thats my new handle for AspNetGuy)

[aspnetguy]

I have heard back from MS. MSN and Live only look at meta tags for description and keywords and do not check the HTTP-header. Hope this helps answer your question.

[Skemcin]

I have heard back from MS. MSN and Live only look at meta tags for description and keywords and do not check the HTTP-header. Hope this helps answer your question.

Thank you so much - that is excellent clarification - good to know.