SEO quick Q 'n A
 

1. I've been hearing for a LONG time now that small text at the bottom of a page doesn't work in getting a high ranking on SE's.

how true is this??

2. do keywords in the meta tags need to be seperated by commas? if not how does the search engine decide where a phrase starts and ends?

3. why is that sometimes sites will have nothing to do with a certain keyword and still get a #2 or #3 ranking? even when viewing source i find NOT ONE trace of that keyword.

Any responses would be awesome! Thanks!!

yes

1. Yes
2. No, they're very clever
3. Various reasons, nefarious and innocent.

It isn't always about keywords on the page. Great example - go to Google and look at the top sites for 'click here' :)

1. very
2. no idea
3. probably cloaking