the value of meta tags

Hi,

My name is Jennifer. I am new to web design and to the forum. I have just completed a full year of web design classes and am now beginning to get my feet wet. After taking web page design II - "advanced web page design" I would think I should feel more advanced than I do, but I still feel like I know so little.

I learned xhtml and css in the first semester and the advanced class taught WYSIWYG using Dreamweaver 8.

For my class project I created a website for a local fruit and vegetable farm - http://www.mackintoshfruitfarm.com - which I continue to update and add on to. (professional commentary is always appreciated)

I am also bidding on a site for my local growers' market, which, if I get may lead to more farm sites, and my own site libertyreading.com which I hope to have up in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, my question is this:
I have been reading on searchengineoptimization.com that meta keyword tags are almost pointless, that most crawler based search engines completely ignore keywords. SEW doesn't recommend wasting your time with them. What do you guys think?

http://www.mackintoshfruitfarm.com
</j>

sorry, i just had to say, i know nothing of s.e.o, but i do know something of website design, - rule 1, always seperate your css and html - it makes your pages easyier to adjust and quicker to load

welcome

__________________
My Recipe forum... For all your food needs

I would say that's what I heard as well. But how do we "really" know. I put them in even though there is a good chance they are being ignored. I figure it's worth it just in case google takes a glance or one of the less popular SE's decide they want them.

Welcome to the world of web design. You sound like you have beginner's jitters. Hang around here and see if it helps you. Also I'd recommend visiting css showcase sites such as http://zeniltuo.com/

Around here you'll hear alot of preaching about not using the WYSWYG feature of Dreamweaver. I for one was a WYSWYG dreamweaver user for more years than I can to admit to. Now I still use it however I use the code view and hand code.

The fruit site is way better than anything I made at the very beginning so compliments to you. You've got some layout issues in Firefox such as the peaches page. So remember to test in as many browsers as you can ok.
It's a good start... look around for inspiration... you'll be amazed at how good you get quickly!
Linda

Funny thing, I just found a link to the exact artical that I was reading in another forum titled "Meta Tags?"

The description tag is important as it's used on Google quite a bit, so never leave that out (and make it relevant to each page, ie, no site-wide description). Keywords probably aren't that important, but why risk no including them?

hahaha...I just had to say this. The "Advanced Class taught Dreamwever"...hahaha...lol.:laughing1: