Just because you've included a meta tag doesn't mean you're done indexing your site. Meta tags only work with some search engines-- most notably, AltaVista, Hotbot, and Infoseek. Yahoo!, Excite, and Lycos don't recognize meta tags. To be listed on those sites the way you want to, you'll have to go to each one and manually sign up.

Excite will use the site summary you enter in your description, but it won't recognize your keywords. The company finds that people often lie when describing their site, and Excite feels that its directory is more accurate if its staff compiles the index.

For the search engines that do acknowledge meta tags, including such tags on your homepage can boost your ratings in search results. But meta tags don't stop at identifying your site. They can also control the way a webpage loads, and they can even set cookies. For more information on meta tags, check out Search Engine Watch. It has more complete information and links to meta tag tutorials, builders, and validators.