Does the keyword meta tag not matter anymore?
-
In the SeoMoz report generated, it recommended removing the meta keywords tag as it was no long relevant?
why is google no longer considering this?
-
I agree with your point; however, scanning a competitors keywords tag is, as you said, just a starting point (assuming they didn't dump their entire link building campaign worth of keywords/phrases into the tag).
For example, a keywords tag for a real estate site homepage might be: content="real estate, homes for sale, houses for sale", or something along those lines. Now, those keywords might be useful for the search engines that still respect the keywords tag, but they're not any help to competition as you probably could have guess, just by looking at the site, that those were keywords they are probably trying to optimize for, anyways.
Just remember, Google's not the only search engine out there.
It'd be foolish to give away any trade secrets within those tags, anyways, so there's not much to worry about in my opinion.
-
At the start of an SEO campaign for my smaller client I use their competitors site keyword metat tag as a starting point for keyword research.
I also recommend that we remove the keyword meta from my clients sites so other SEOs don't use the information to their own benefit.
It's an approach that seems to work for me.
-
However, it's believed that there are still smaller search engines out there that do. It doesn't hurt IMO, so why not include it?
Just don't bloat it with a million keywords. Keep it short and sweet to what the page content is about; just like adding tags in Wordpress.
-
Google have not used they keyword meta tag since about 2009 IIRC
See here for more details: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
How that helps,
K
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
-
Product Tags
So Opencart allows the use of product tags (please note, this are NOT meta tags) which I believe are used for when customers want to search for a product using the search function. So one of my tags could be ''star wars socks'', and when a customer types this into the search it brings up every product containing the tag for socks. This is all good and well, however, these tags appear on the product page itself, right below the Manufacturer/Brand, and above the price. Will Google look kindly on this or could it be considered as keyword stuffing? Or will Google know they're for search and ignore them? I just need to know whether or not removing them entirely will be a good or bad idea.
On-Page Optimization | | moon-boots0 -
Search Console shows structure keywords more significant over content keywords. What is wrong?
Search Console shows non content related - website structure keywords as:
On-Page Optimization | | Yaz-
"categories, account, facebook,..." as top significant keywords. And after those comes the website's content keywords.
These words come from the header as I can notice. Am I repeating the content keywords less? Is there a way to adjust this? I am sure this affects my Adsense targeting.
What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?0 -
Is it OK to include name of your town to the title tag or H1 tag on a blog to enhance local search results
I recently attended a webinar by ETNA Interactive on local search SEO. The presenter recommended including the name of your town in the title of the blog to increase local search SEO. Is this OK? Ive always been concerned that it is such an obvious attempt to rank locally that Google would consider it "spammy" ? black hat, "sketchy" or otherwise manipulative. Have the rules changed? Is it OK to do? Brooke
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
Adding meta description tags to Drupal 6 content
It looks as if a quick improvement to the (inherited) site that I manage would be to add meta description tags to all our pages. But I don't see a user-friendly way to modify the html headers from within Drupal. I'm debating whether to interpose CSS code between Drupal and the final html content, but I'd face a steep learning curve on CSS. Can you suggest a more excellent approach? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | marcellu
John0 -
Keyword at homepage
Hi there! Is it true that the most relevant keyword should it be located in the home page of a website since it has the most link-juice or this statement is a "myth"? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Can I use Same Keyword for Multi pages Title Tags?
Hello All, I am working on client website and currently they are targeting One Keywords for multi pages. As I have search with Allintitle: Search query and Google display around 37 pages of website which carry same keyword in "Title Tags". I have told to client to change the "Title Tags" but they want that keyword for all relevant pages. So I want to know is that harm in Search Engine Ranking? Note: They have not done the link building activities for multi pages with same Keyword, they are using only in "Title Tags" only
On-Page Optimization | | jemindesai0 -
What are your thoughts on keyword density?
Useless metric? Good as an indicator, but not of any real value? Best way to judge how well content is optimised? I've heard all kinds of opinions, what's yours? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | underscorelive0 -
What are the benefits of targeting one keyword phrase per page vs. multiple keywords per page
What are the benefits of optimizing a page for one keyword phrase versus a group of similar keywords, like this one that Rand posted on another blog entry http://bit.ly/7LzTxY: Ted Baker Ted Baker London Ted Baker Clothing Ted Baker Mens Ted Baker Mens Clothing Ted Baker Mens Collection
On-Page Optimization | | EricVallee340