META tags are useful for varying your descriptions from page-to-page, which is one of the things the SEs like when indexing your site. As for achieving rankings, META tags are next to useless. You will only rank for your keywords after months and months, possibly years of gaining links to your site. Definitely start reading up at seochat.com if you are serious about getting somewhere in the SERPs. I spent a couple of months reading before I got it.