importance or priority tag???

[markwolk]

Some time ago, I remember having seen a third party site with an unusual tag in the < head > section. I think it was "importance" or "priority" or "rank". From what I remember, its use is to indicate to search engines the importance of each page in relation to other pages of the site. Can someone point me to an explanation and use policies?

[MikeGale]

If you find out independent of this post, please let us know what you find.

Thanks.

[Albert Wiersch]

Nothing comes to mind but I would also appreciate it if you let us know what it is if you find out.

[MikeGale]

The only thing that comes to mind like this is in a different context. It's in site map files. There is a tag that looks like this

Code: Select all

<priority>0.5000</priority>

But it's not web pages.

My view of this "feature" when I looked at it was that it was most likely ignored by anything that counts.

The Google tool that makes sitemaps is kinda hardwired to include these priority tags. It's not trivial to remove them.

Let us know when you find the web page equivalent.

[vetzkov]

I think you are giving awayt too much attention to those priority tags. They have some role but it is far from vital and loosing your time on their research is not the best thing to do.

[omnireso]

+1 vetzkov

The priority XML tag is in the sitemap, but as it is "declared", it bears its own limitations (ie. as those in the meta keywords).
Thus it's almost impossible to tell/check/test if it is of any value for search engine's spiders/algo's and indexes.

[MikeGale]

Another issue with the search engines is that the algorithms change.

Google in fact has a really interesting looking deployment technique and presumably uses it often, maybe weekly to tweak behaviour.

With the recent changes to demote "syndicated content only" sites, and the new "ban a base URL for ever" feature I detect an overdue attempt to improve their behaviour. So even if it works today it might not tomorrow.

(My personal view is that the problem is with algorithms which can be gamed. Quality human input is the antidote. Not sure that they'll find a way to get and use it though. Paid search services would fix a lot of the nonsense we currently experience!)

[ofonnm]

The algorithms change according my experience will not bother a lot as long as you give variety of SEO optimization on your site. The most important thing is quality contents or what visitors look for. Without great SERPs people will come to your site by their own wants if yo have contents what they want.