"Spamming" meta tags and search engines. Some guidelines: Something to know is that keyword meta tags will not even help propel a site to the top of the search results regardless of what keyword phrases are chosen.
Search engines used to look at keyword meta tags to get an accurate picture of what a web page was about. But because web site owners got wise to this and began to
cram their meta tags with keyword phrases for higher ranking, search engines' programmers altered their algorithms to compensate. Now, for the most part, search engines simply ignore keyword meta tags.
On the other hand, while a well-written keyword meta tag probably won't help you as far as search engine optimization goes, a poorly written one can actually do you harm in ranking.
If you "jam" your keyword meta tag with keywords or worse
yet repeat your keywords over and over again, you could be
penalized by the search engines for "keyword spamming."
With this in mind, here are a few guidelines to adhere to when writing your keyword meta tag:
• Keep the length of your keyword meta tag below 150 characters (not words!)
• Use the keyword phrases you've optimized your web page with only ONCE, preferably at the beginning of your tag and then do not repeat them.
• In the rest of the tag, add keyword phrases that are most
related to the keyword phrases you have optimized your site with.
As for separating keywords and keyword phrases, engines ignore commas and dashes, so a simple space will suffice.
