Meta keywords
-
I heard that Google doesn't use 'meta keywords' for ranking. Is that true and does it harm to use the meta tag? And how do the other big SEs use the tag?
-
Here's what Bing has to say about the meta keywords tag (hint: it's just one of about a thousand signals they look at), and why Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land feels only spammers should use it.
-
Thanks, does this only regard Google or also the other SEs?
-
It is absulutely true. In the old days it was enough just to stuff your keywords section with related keywords to rank high in google. So it is not a surprise that lot of peole has abused this functionality. First goole just gave less significance to keywords section but now it uses more obvious metrics in its algorythm. You could stuff your keywords with seo audit for example and your page could be about webpage development and you could gain some extra traffic but it is much harder to put seo audit is the title on the page in the url, in picture names and have a totally different content. So google stopped using Here is the official video from Matt Cutts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU
As I know yahoo still uses this part to some extent.
-
It is true Meta keywords are not a signal that Google really looks at in today's market, they are also something which are not worth wile as competitors can just copy your keywords.
Meta Title and Description are still advisable but.
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
-
Keywords, when are you overdoing it in the URL?
Hi guys, I'm auditing a site covering compensation for cancer. Keywords could include: Undiagnosed cancer 20 cancer compensation 10 undiagnosed cancer symptoms 10 cancer misdiagnosis claims 20 cancer claims 10 misdiagnosis of cancer 50 cancer misdiagnosis 70 So, when structuring the URL for the category, this was previously selected: www.site.co.uk/medical-negligence/cancer-misdiagnosis Although sub-pages appear like this: www.site.co.uk/medical-negligence/cancer-misdiagnosis/breast-cancer-misdiagnosis-claim/ 'Cancer misdiagnosis' as a keyword attracts the most traffic, but if we're using it on sub-pages - is there a need to include it twice on all sub-page URLs? With that in mind, would it be better to follow the following format? www.site.co.uk/medical-negligence/cancer-compensation www.site.co.uk/medical-negligence/cancer-compensation/breast-cancer-misdiagnosis-claim/ Or is there a better way to structure this? Thanks in advance guys!
Technical SEO | | Muhammad-Isap0 -
When do I change out my meta tags after a full website revamp?
We're creating a new version of our entire website - look and feel is completely different, though core functionality and results are the same. Just cleaner, faster.. etc. We're doing a temp redirect to the temporary url for testing and to slow roll the release to some of our users for a more friendly approach. Eventually, the new look and feel will be under the original url. I've researched best practices for the site transfer, including "make sure the meta tags for title and description are exactly the same". The concern I have is that Moz Analytics is detecting a lot of errors in the existing meta tags. They're too long, have changed and become inconsistent after being passed through different hands, & some have some keyword stuffing in there. I have plans to change them out and really clean them up... I'm just wondering, when is the best time to do that? Since the tags are bad, should I just do it now but make sure that the old and new are matching? Or should I wait (and for how long?) after the new site is switched over and everything is on the original URL?
Technical SEO | | SFMoz0 -
Advice and Opinions Required Regarding creating new pages for similar keywords
We are currently in the process of creating new pages for keywords very similar to our main landing pages. Example: Page 1.) "Family Holiday in {Location}" Page 2.) "Family Vacation in {Location}" Page 3.) "Family get-away in {location}" All 3 keywords are currently optimised for the 1st page "Family Holidays in {Location}" but was wondering if there is any benefit or if its worth creating sub pages for these alternative keywords. I personally don't think we should do this as Google will know to rank our main page for secondary/synonym keywords via on page seo and links with anchor text, but can you foresee any negative aspects if we went ahead and created these children pages being linked to from the top level keyword's page? Or do we continue optimising our main landing page for related/synonym keywords? Thanks in Advance GREG
Technical SEO | | AndreVanKets0 -
Do I need robots.txt and meta robots?
If I can manage to tell crawlers what I do and don't want them to crawl for my whole site via my robots.txt file, do I still need meta robots instructions?
Technical SEO | | Nola5040 -
What if my brand name is my keyword?
Referencing the new 'over optimization' penalties.. What if your company name was "Buy a Burrito" and your website website was buyaburrito.com (not a real site), and your main keyphrase was "buy a burrito". Will Google treat all Branded Terms as exact or phrase match keywords and penalize you?
Technical SEO | | daviddischler0 -
Does a TM in the keyword have effect?
If I include TM in a keyword string, does this make it another keyword or does Google ignore that? Example: Kentucky Hot Sauce vs Kentucky Hot (TM) sauce. Of course the TM would be done properly via ™ Cheers.
Technical SEO | | Malarowski0 -
Should I repeat keywords at each folder level of my urls?
Hey Guys, I'm wondering which URL is preferable when targeting the keyword phrase "ski goggles" a) http://www.evo.com/shop/ski/ski-goggles.aspx or b) http://www.evo.com/shop/ski/goggles.aspx URL a includes the keyword phrase exactly with a dash but also repeats the word "ski" and feels redundant. Any research/ testing to support either case? Thanks a bunch. Will
Technical SEO | | evoNick0 -
Ecommerce SEO with 130 keywords
Hello everyone, My name is Davys and I'm what you call a newbie...so the question may sound stupid....But where we go. In this campaign I will be targeting around 130 to 150 keywords to my store. So here is the technical question. What is the right way of indexing 150 keywords? Should I attempt to have all 150 going to www.mysite.com or should I break it down into smaller pages if I can put it that way. Like www.mysite.com/pages/bikiniwax for example. Even if I break it down, what is the right amount of keywords that I should SEO per page? Or do 150 pages? Please helppppppppppppppppppppp.... 🙂 Thanks a lot for your help.
Technical SEO | | Davys0
