Search engines rely less than they once did on the metadata in a page when indexing a Web site. This is mostly due to the fact that much metadata is either deliberately or accidentally incorrect. However, metadata can help in many other areas, especially in static pages with stable content.

With external search engines such as Google, not including any meta tags is not detrimental, but it will reduce the ranking on many other search engines. As search engines index words from a page, they can also collect metadata that is encoded within the page. Many search engines use the description tag when displaying results. Search engines such as AltaVista, HotMeta, Siderean Seamark, SWISH-E and Ultraseek utilize some, or all, of a page's metadata.

There are many reasons to include metadata, beyond what a search engine may make use of:

• perhaps most importantly, metadata can vastly enhance indexing within an internal content management system or cataloguing system;
• metadata is very helpful in interpreting multi-lingual resources; and
• metadata benefits the visually impaired.