Meta data is defined as ?data about data?, and that is exactly what Meta Tags do, provide valuable data about your company or web site.
Proper meta tags can not only help internet surfers and prospective clients find your site, they provide important data to all the major search engines (Google, Meta Crawler, Lycos, etc..) on characteristics of your site including:
-Content Type
-Contact Information
-Reindexing Instructions (information about when a search engine should return)
-Prevention of Microsoft smart tags ( tags that draw traffic away from your site)
-Site Keywords
-Site Description
-And More?
Without a proper meta strategy, most of this information about your site is lost. Having a competitive meta strategy will help build search engine traffic to your site for the life of your site. It is estimated that over 60% of internet sites do not have proper meta tags.