The importance of meta keywords?
-
Hello,
Is adding meta keywords still worth doing nowadays? I have been reading and hearing some different opinions about it. For a ' beginner ' in this field it is hard to find a definite answer to this questions.. Thank you for reading(and answering) my question!
-
Meta keywords have never hurt any of our customer sites and can only help with other less known search engines. So I disagree with most here and say "keep them!"
-
Hi EPD,
I wanted to add one thing that hasn't been touched on. Meta keywords used to be extremely popular but people started abusing them - they would add dozens or even hundreds of meta keywords to low-quality landing pages to try and rank for various keywords. Google eventually caught on to this spammy tactic so that's why they are no longer a part of the algorithm.
There is one scenario in which meta keywords can be useful: internal site search. If you have an internal site search box on your site, you can add alternate product names or misspellings in the meta keyword field for popular products and it will help those products take users to the proper page and provide a good UX since most site search processors include meta keywords field when determining results. For example, If I sell gonorrhea testing and everyone misspells it, they may frequently get a no results page. Adding misspellings to meta keywords field helps more people find the product they are looking for.
I would try to limit this to about five meta keywords per product though so it doesn't look spammy.
Cheers!
-
I wrote an article on this exact topic awhile back. Bottom line, don't use the meta keywords tag. It's a waste of time for rankings and might be a good way for your competitors to know exactly what you're trying to rank for.
-
Hey there,
Thank you guys so much for the quick response! You've helped me loads!
-
Google officially announced in 2009 that meta keywords were not a factor. Including Meta keywords can be a negative instead of being a positive factor, as they are generally words which are inconsistent without meaning anything to a user or a search engine.
-
Hi there,
tldr; There is no importance.
I have 2 things to say:
- In 2009 there was a post and a video stating that Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking.
Post, Video - Personally, I believe that there's no reason to use them. There are a lot of "experts" that say you may not be 100% optimized using meta keywords. Other directly say that you will me penalized. As Google says it is not used, just dont use it.
Another idea is that this tag is public, so you may be saying publicly to your competitors what are your important keywords.
Best Luck.
GR. - In 2009 there was a post and a video stating that Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking.
-
Hi EPPD!
Google officially announced in 2009 that meta keywords was not a factor in ranking at all. I also believe that the description isn-t a ranking factor—the reason you need to focus on the description is to ensure that it has a strong hook that accurately reflects the content of the page to entice the searcher to click on the link.
-
Hi there
No, I would not add these. To Thomas' point, search engines don't bother with this as a ranking factor, and putting in meta keywords could also give your competition an idea of what keywords you are going after, essentially showing your cards in a poker game.
If you're looking for a great beginner resource, check out Moz's Beginner's Guide to SEO. It's loaded with tips and articles to help you get off to a great start and focus on items substantially more important than meta keywords! There are also other great guides and resources as well!
Hope this helps! Good luck to you!
P -
They used to be used quite heavily. Nowadays majority of the major search engines don't use them at all. The only one I believe still does is Yandex, of which it's a minor signal then.
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
-
Google Adding / Manipulating Page Meta Titles?
We have a client who is experiencing some heavy google modification to the title tags being displayed on the search engine. It is adding "- 0 Reviews" to an ecommerce site. Obviously a bad start. There were no instances of these keywords anywhere on any of these pages, header tag or otherwise (on only a handful of the affected pages there was a single commented out image with an alt tag 0 reviews - but it was commented out and since removed) We have attempted to rewrite the title multiple times and it will modify the title but still include the non-relevant addition. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?
Algorithm Updates | | Spindle0 -
Should plural keyword variations get their own targeted pages?
I am in the middle of changing a website from targeting just a single keyword on all pages to instead having each page target its own keyword/phrase. However, I'm a little conflicted on whether or not plural forms and other suffix (-ing) variations are different enough to get their own pages. SERP show different results for each keyword searched. Also, relevancy reports for the keywords score some differently and some the same. Is it best to instead use these as secondary and third level keywords on the same page as the main keyword for a page? See example below: OPTION A (Use each for different pages): Page 1 - Construction Fence Page 2 - Construction Fences Page 3 - Construction Fencing Page 4 - Construction Site Fence Page 5 - Construction Site Fences Page 6 - Construction Site Fencing ... OPTION B (Use as variations on same page): Page 1 - Construction Fence, Construction Fences, Construction Fencing Page 2 - Construction Site Fence, Construction Site Fences, Site Construction Fencing ... Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | pac-cooper0 -
Fresh content..how important to SERP position?
I've heard that fresh content helps boost your position in the serps. If i wrote all new unique content on some of my pages that havent been changed in several years, would i see a boost in the rank? If so, how many positions?
Algorithm Updates | | Ron100 -
Why would Google read different pages to rank for a keyword?
I have noticed a large drop in a number of keywords in the latest rankings report. I have checked the results on the 'Ranking History Graph' and it appears that Google is reading different pages for the specific keyword and therefore, giving large fluctuations in ranking dependant on the page from week to week. Why would this be happening?
Algorithm Updates | | Benjamin3790 -
Keyword density and meta tags
Hi, I've just checked the number of keywords appearing on my website's pages. On some of them the keyword density was way too high (7-10%) if you included the meta tags, but all under 3.5% if I didn't include the keywords and description meta tags. So my question is - when looking at number of keywords used per page, do I have to worry about what's in those meta tags? Do the keywords in there count towards keyword density / number of keywords per page? Thanks, Luke
Algorithm Updates | | McTaggart0 -
Is there a utility that can tell me what keywords my site already ranks high for?
Ok... so I'm looking for a way to understand what my site already ranks high for.. I don't necessarily want to have to manually type in keywords. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate to a client what keywords they're already ranking high for. Is there an easy way / tool to go about doing this? Thanks in advance, Gene
Algorithm Updates | | BGroup0 -
Understanding the concept of "Keywords"?
To run my campaigns on SEOmoz or google or other search engines, i need to have some clarity on what exactly a keyword means. firstly, how do the comibnation of different words work? Example : Buy apple laptop in india, 2) Buy apple laptop india 3) apple laptop india Are 1, 2, 3 considered as keywords OR Apple, laptop, India, Buy, considered as keywords? to run campaigns in SEOmoz how do i use the tool more effectively, should i chose how my users would search in the search engine or use certain keywords. in the above example the only difference between 1 & 2 is the word "in", and i see a significant difference in the search results. How do use/target my keywords?
Algorithm Updates | | NikhilM0 -
Is there a way to pull historical rankings for a keyword?
I have someone who's come to me and said that they have lost all of their organic keyword rankings. They did launch a site redesign a few months back so that could be a reason as to why. But after looking at the site, link profile, etc. It doesn't look like they could have been ranking for the terms they say they were. They have never implemented any SEO on their sites btw. I did not build this site and have not done any SEO, they are coming to me to solve the problem. I did notice in SEM rush that a couple months ago they were ranking organically for more terms (20 in July vs. 5 now), so they did lose some. Is there any way to see what terms they WERE ranking for?
Algorithm Updates | | MichaelWeisbaum0