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
-
QUESTION. Keyword Stuffing reduction while maintaining SEO optimal density?
Optimizing a keyword for a page on MOZ is telling me with a red exclamation mark to avoid keyword stuffing but if I remove any more of the keyword i will have none left in the content but titles etc. The moz message doesn't go away no matter how many keywords are removed. I am using wordpress i have the keyword the title element, the image alt text, the meta description/title, can't take anymore out of the content nothing seems to change but I can't figure out why?
Moz Pro | | 247mobileservices0 -
Crawl Diagnostics - 350 Critical errors? But I used rel-canonical links
Hello Mozzers, We launched a new website on Monday and had our first MOZ crawl on 01/07/15 which came back with 350+ critical errors. The majority of these were for duplicate content. We had a situation like this for each gym class: GLOBAL YOGA CLASS (canonical link / master record) YOGA CLASS BROMLEY YOGA CLASS OXFORD YOGA CLASS GLASGOW etc All of these local Yoga pages had the canonical link deployed. So why is this regarded as an error by MOZ? Should I have added robots NO INDEX instead? Would think help? Very scared our rankings are gonna get effected 😞 Ben
Moz Pro | | Bendall0 -
Search Volume for a Keyword
I assume this questions has probably been covered many times, if so I am sorry for asking it again, for whatever reason, I am not finding the answer I require, so I would appreciate some help. I would like to know the search volume for a keyword. I remember I used to get this information on Google Adwords account, it no longer displays it the same. I want to know if Moz or even Google for that matter provide this tool in a simple way. So if I entered a keyword, I would get the volume of searches Globally as well as locally either on a per month or a per day basis and it would be broken down as exact match or broad etc. This was a great feature before. I would love to access the same thing again. Thanks you.
Moz Pro | | RyanShahed0 -
Finding all search terms/keywords
Hi everyone! Is there a report I can run on SEOMoz that will show all of the search terms that people are using to find my site? I want to analyze where I am doing well and where I can use some work, but I'd like to have that as a starting point. Thanks in advance!
Moz Pro | | JodiFTM0 -
Whats the best way to research website relevant keywords
I wanted to know the general practices SEO marketers use when initially researching and revisiting relevant keywords for a website. I use this process Brain storm a list of keywords, between me and the client Check out competitors websites & SERP's look at Google adwords traffic analyser ( mostly as a point of reference and for increased ideas) How do others do it? what process do you find works - i'm based in the Uk would be great to get a UK perspective. Obviously you can't optimise for all keywords in your list how best is it to decide on the best value or less competitive keywords? I struggle to get stats for local keywords( not enough search data) - most my clients are local businesses and have limited surrounding service areas. thanks
Moz Pro | | Bristolweb0 -
Crawl Diagnostics shows two title and meta tag errors but they are false positives.
I got one hit each on "Missing Meta Description Tag" and "Title Missing or Empty" but in the source of my page they are clearly there: <title>Protein Powder | Compare and Get the Best Prices</title> <meta name="keywords" content="protein powder, whey protein, protein supplement, whey protein isolate, hydrolyzed whey" /> I understand there are conventions which may or may not be followed by Drupal (I read an earlier question where ordering and W3C conventions were suggested) but i'm not sure how to fix them given Drupal will just overwrite any hand editing the next time something is built and importantly, I can't get the crawl to work on cue - it works on the automatic once a week crawl in the main campaign summary but every time I've specifically used the Crawl Test tool it gives me a "There was an error submitting your request to the crawler. Please try again later" so I can't really test any changes. Given Google seems to be recognising the title tag - ie showing it in the results - Do I put this down as seomoz just not working? Kind Regards, Brian
Moz Pro | | btrr690 -
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 -
Keyword Difficulty Tool: Error
Hi - is anyone else getting an error using the Keyword Difficulty tool? I'm getting "ERROR: There was a transient error with your request. Please try again."
Moz Pro | | ErikDster0