For years, people slaved over the meta title and description for each page of their site. Search engines have devalued this approach in relation to rankings, but these two factors are still important.
Just to make sure we are on the same page, let's quickly cover meta titles and descriptions. You should have both in the code of every page of your site that you want to draw traffic. The meta title is simply the title of the page and appears at the very top right of your computer screen, up above the toolbar of the browser you are using. The meta description is embedded in your code and not seen on the site per se.
A few years back, your meta description and title were critical to gaining rankings. Keyword density analysis within each was a much discussed subject, as was the exact number of times said keywords should appear and where. To a great extent, this is no longer the case. The search engines, particularly Google, started focusing more on the content on the page in relation to establishing rankings.
Meta titles and descriptions may be less important, but they are still vital. Critical might be to strong a word, but very important probably still applies. Why? Well, the play a role in rankings, but also in your click through rate.
When you look at results on Google for a search, the meta title represents your best opportunity to entice a viewer and get them to click into your site. While being ranked number one is obviously a good idea, people are becoming pickier about what they will click through on. Stacking six or seven keyword phrases as your meta title is not a great approach in my opinion, as it doesn't convey anything to the person viewing the link other than there is something on the page related to the keyword in question. Personally, I prefer to stick to one keyword phrase per title, so long as it is at least three words.
Meta descriptions are another area where a practical situation arises. The meta description appears below your title in the search results. It represents an opportunity to expand upon your title. Is it critical that you do this? Probably not, but every bit helps. More importantly, your description can be used to help your rankings. Personally, I always use the first two lines of text on the page as my meta description. Obviously, you want to have the keyword phrase you are optimizing for in that text, preferably twice. By taking this approach, you highlight the phrase for the search engines and provide the reader with a clue to what is on the page.
Meta tags in general have lost much of their allure when it comes to search engine optimization. While they are definitely no longer a critical element, they are still important.
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