Meta keywords no longer in use
-
Can someone point me to the official article explaining why meta keywords are no longer taken into account by search engines please?
I know Moz has indicated that search engines ignore them, but I would like to read a bit more about it - what was the reason behind it and since when.
-
One of the main reasons they stopped looking at them is because it was easy to spam and stuff the tags. Any site can easily stuff the meta tags, so it's an unreliable ranking factor.
A few years back it was beneficial for when directories/info sites would scrape your site. When they list your site they would use those keywords for categories, and possibly even anchor text. You don't see it as much anymore, especially since that scraped information is just junk content.
The way I see it, it can hurt your site to have the KWs. Your competitors can easily see what keywords you are going after (which they probably can anyway by looking at a given page). Giving them one spot to check on every page though will make it much easier for them to benefit from your keyword research.
Some people like to use meta tags as product tags on their site. So if you search for "black cats" on a cat website, anything with the meta tag black cats would come up first. It also works for when you want to make a black cat page that features every single black cat related item on your site. Of course, you can just do internal tagging for this, and don't need to use the meta tags.
Moral of the story: not much use for them.
-
I think you're right - if we can't find a reason for using them, best to ignore / remove it altogether.
-
From what I understand algorithm would figure this out from the title, description and content.
I thought more of any other potential use such as advanced search where you can select specific tags to look within - did anyone hear of any place they can be used except for SEO purposes?
-
I really wouldn't worry about meta-keywords. Much better to spend the time on the content!
-
Search engines may still use it for discovery. Meaning simply answering the question: what should the page potentially rank for?
best, G
-
Is there any other area that meta keywords could be used - for any other purpose perhaps?
From what I understand it is only ignored, but not penalised unless stuffed with keywords?
-
I usually say that if Google does it the others are doing it as well.
So:
The meta keywords tag is not in use for SEO with regard to Google and Yahoo.
I'm pretty sure Bing doesn't either.
Best, G
-
Here's a post about how Bing views keywords:
The Meta Keywords Tag Lives At Bing & Why Only Spammers Should Use It
So, over-stuffing your keywords isn't totally ignored and can cause a penalty on Bing.
Meta keywords were so abused in the past that they could no longer be used to accurately tell what the page was about. As a relevance/ranking signal it became worthless.
-
Thanks Gustav,
Is it only Google that this applies to or other search engines followed the same rule?
-
Here's Googles post about it:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
Hope this was what you were looking for.
Best, G
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Keyword Research and Planning Flow
Hello, First post here. I am a IT infrastructure engineer that does application and deployment work mostly, but new to SEO. That being said, I am a firm believer in demming wheel and defined process/flow charts. I have a website up, built as best practice, its a Magento CE open source Ecommerce store. After some initial research, it seems I really need to define my keywords before I start branding my landing pages and such. So i am going to have to go back and implement the keywords and evaluate. But as I am reading it seems most SEO people try their keywords in google ad words first? Then implement? I am hoping to find some flow or process sheets on how successful Keyword research is done via step by step process and evaluation. And explanations of each. How many keywords to start with per landing page, how many to try and get in the H1 headers, paragraphs, URL. How long to leave keywords in to test? Also, I am a start up company that is competing with the big boys in my market space. I know I cant compete for the big keywords in my market? What is my best strategy for getting any kind of ranking as a small business in a global market? SEO is a mysterious, intriguing thing to me! Very much reminding me of one of my favorite whimsical quotes I will leave you will now, and thanks for reading. -Alex "Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple." - Willy Wonka
Moz Pro | | iamgreenminded0 -
Is the keyword ranking number used for MOZ Pro an average position taken across the time period?
Hi there I am just trying to confirm how the ranking given in the 'rankings' report is calculated (an average etc). Thanks Sarah
Moz Pro | | Laurie-Tomahawk0 -
Does the Crawl Diagnosis - Duplicate Page Content account for a canonical meta tags?
I see the same page listed 3 time (with different query params). But on each I have a meta tag pointing to the correct canonical url. By still seeing all three listed, does that mean there is an error with my meta tag?
Moz Pro | | Simantel0 -
Number of Linking Root Domains using EXACT match anchor text
Recently, I read an article a post here in SEOmoz blog talking about competitive backlink analysis. (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/guide-to-competitive-backlink-analysis). Could anyone please indicate me the way to retrieve the next two metrics from the SEOmoz account? Number of Linking Root Domains using EXACT matct anchor text. Percentage of anchors with EXACT match anchor. Thank you in advance!
Moz Pro | | KostasKostalampros0 -
Keyword Ranking Fluctuation
Hi, In campaigns, every week we found a big keyword ranking fluctuation. For Example: This week SEO MOZ campaign shows one keyword on 23 position and keyword change number shows 13 position down. When i have checked manually its showing on 13th position. Can you please tell me why its happen? Waiting for your reply Thanks,
Moz Pro | | pulseseo0 -
Google rankings dropped for some keywords
http://www.funktiongolf.co.uk uk google Our site ranked well for these words funky golf trendy golf clothes Now these keywords do no rank at all for my website. I have not been penalised by google as i emailed them. The only thing I did was add best seller products to my main page. Now my about us page ranks far higher than my index page Please Help
Moz Pro | | funktiongolf0 -
In competitive domain analysis my website shows pages that I no longer have.
When I go to my campaign, link analysis, under competitive comparison/followed backlinks, the 5 pages under Anchor Text/Target URL, supposedly on my website, are not on my website anymore. I recently moved my domain name to another server (before signing up for seomoz) and deleted the forum associated with my website. Those 5 pages are all from that now extinct forum. What's going on?
Moz Pro | | ovistomih0 -
Which Google API do you use to creat a rank checking tool?
I can't seem to work this one out. Basically I want to make a very simple rank checker tool something similar to http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/ where a user simply type in a domain and a keyword and in return is shown the position within the results. The problem is I can’t work out which API's I need in order to build it, does anyone know what I need to poke about with? It must work with Google and ideally with Bing and the rest
Moz Pro | | therealmarkhall0