Should I remove Meta Keywords tags?

[BeytzNet]

Hi,

Do you recommend removing Meta Keywords or is there "nothing to lose" with having them?

Thanks

[eyepaq]

So basically you got the answer as it dosen't harm or help as far as rankings BUT there is a way to use it either in your advantage or disadvantage.

It can also give away your main keywords to competitors - and that's not good.

For high competitive websites (where competitors are following movements and trying to figure things out )  I am using the keywords metatags to channel competitors in a different directions by putting there other keywords (still somehow related) and not the keywords that particular page is targeting.

Case study:

I have an account and soon after placing some "stupid" keywords in the keyword tag we've notice on page changes in a major competitor for those keywords that are not really good (conversion, volume etc) but probably on the idea that if the #1 is doing it it must be important

[Webrevolve]

Hi,

Personally I don't use them and have not seen any negative or positive effects of doing so.

The main reason I don't is, considering Google doesn't use them as a ranking influencer, then I just don't waste time filling them in.  I don't think the time it can take warrant's the reward from any search engine that still looks at them. Plus, I don't like the fact a lazy competitor might take a look to see what my main focus is.

Your time would be better invested focusing elsewhere.

If the keywords tab is already on the site, then how many pages would you need to remove it from? How long would it take? And given the only real reason to remove would be to stop competitors seeing them  - info which they can easily find anyway, is it worth the effort? I'd be inclined to say not.

So, in short - if they are NOT present don't bother adding. If they ARE present, don't waste time removing.

Hope this helps.

[Matt-Williamson]

I wouldn't use meta keywords either, as there is no real value in them in terms of ranking - Bing actually uses them to help identify spammers. As Moosa mentioned; if you put too much effort into them it is a quick and easy way for competitors to identify what keywords you are targeting.

I think this recent Q&A would be of interest to you -

http://www.seomoz.org/q/meta-keywords-should-we-use-them-or-not

[SanketPatel]

No harm in using meta keyword tag from Google's point of view. There are other search engines apart from Google who still consider meta tag signal in ranking. **Google is not only the traffic source.  **

[MoosaHemani]

To be honest, I f i would be at your place I wouldn’t have used that and if it was available I would have delete it till now for few specific reasons...

1. This has no impact from the SEO point of view and search engine is not getting or collecting any information from this...so why write more?
2. If the Meta Keyword tag is smartly inserted then it can be dangerous and this is because you are seriously helping your competitors to see what keywords are you targeting on the page and then he can alter his strategies accordingly to outrank you in search engine from the desired key phrases.

Hope this helps!

[Visiblics]

Meta keywords doesn't harm your website in any which ways, though it doesn't even help  you in gaining rankings in Search Engines,

Matt Cutts says "It's possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it's unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy."

However, there are other search engines and directories that use the keyword meta tag. For example, Yahoo! still uses it