Google Says No to Meta Keywords Tag
The Official Google Webmaster Central Blog says, in a post published earlier this week, that the famous <meta name=”keywords”/> tag does not affect your search engine rankings. Google says it’s a waste of time and should be ignored. Doing this, you can actually save a dozen-or-so bytes per pageload! It has also mentioned in the post that it is possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it’s very unlikely since they have ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently see no need to change that policy.
Google says that it disregards the meta keyword tags in SE Rankings. Image Courtesy: wipeout44.com
So, is there a need to keep the “meta keywords” tag or should we start removing them? Einstein had famously said “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot!”
Lets see what bing has to say about “meta” tag on their webmaster blog? Rick DeJarnette from the Bing Webmaster Center Team writes
The <meta> tag’s keyword attribute is not the page rank panacea it once was back in the prehistoric days of Internet search. It was abused far too much and lost most of its cachet. But there’s no need to ignore the tag. Take advantage of all legitimate opportunities to score keyword credit, even when the payoff is relatively low. Fill in this tag’s text with relevant keywords and phrases that describe that page’s content.
When creating keyword text, remember the following:
- Choose words that may be secondary keyword terms (save the primary keywords for use in the <title> and <meta> description tags), and even include a few, commonly seen typographical errors of primary keywords, just for good measure.
- Limit your keyword and key phrase text, separated by commas, to no more than 874 characters.
- Don’t repeat a keyword more than 4 times among the keywords and phrases in the listl
That leaves us in a fix. Google Vs Bing. Who should we go with?
Google, which has more than 65% of market share in the search industry.
OR
Bing, which was recently reported as fastest growing search engine.
My personal opinion would be that you should keep meta keywords tag and populate a couple of your most targeted keywords while making sure that you DO NOT overstuff it. This means you are adding not more than 100 bytes of data in your web page which will take less than few milliseconds to load. Plus Google never said that this will have negative impact so there is no harm. And since they left it open that their policies may change in future which means, if they do, you do not have to start filling in again. You will be already prepared. And at the same time, you are following the guidelines by Bing and making sure that your web page is optimized for that as well.
What do you think about this particular paradox? Share your thoughts with us. If you liked reading this post, do bookmark us and subscribe to our feed!
Nice analysis. On Bing, what i’ve realised is that your site tends to go missing from its index evry now and then. I had this site and it was first on on the first pag on Bing but now it has disappeared completely. They’re so frustrating.
[...] of the hype around keywords meta tag and SEO. This post was prompted by questions from my audience, this concise opinion that almost hit the mark, and an article from Search Engine Land that, for me, exemplifies much of what is wrong with the [...]
Great article and well presented! My gut feeling is that the other shoe hasn’t dropped yet? As we still have LSI, Silos and a myriad of other slice & dice approaches still circling I believe it will remain musical chairs for awhile longer? To me the jury is still out and I plan on keeping keyword meta tags in place until rankings start to take a pronounced turn? I can wait for more concrete evidence.
Google and many SE have said no for meta tags long time ago. the only tags that matters now is your description tag since with it you can capture the attention of the searcher, not Google.
That’s true Google not recognize now Meta Keywords. Except Google other search engines are considering meta keywords.
Well, i think there is no harm in following META, and yes it hardly affects page load also.
Very intersting articles. Beyond how useful keywords are for search engine rankings, I do believe they contribute to your critical thinking. The exercise of identifying meaningful keywords (and description) gives you an opportunity to distance yourself of the copy-editing of your content and analyze it from a different perspective. Keywords give you the oportunity to become your own judge of your content and review its quality. It is up to you to be thorough, consistent and why not- honest!
My feeling is that you should keep the keyword tag. When you go to a page to help an SEO client, the keyword tag is a help in analysis to see how well the content matches their intent. In academic journals, keywords are still use to help categorize an article. If there is no harm for Google and may help in other search engines, then definately keep the the tag. An extra couple hundred bytes is not going to impact page performance significantly.
So, it’s finally official. It seems that the search engines have been ignoring meta kws since I can remember. Why wouldn’t they?
Strange that there is no mention in the Blog or comments with respect to the #2 engine – Yahoo. Here is a recent link (the answer appears to be yes but VERY LOW in importance). http://www.highposition.net/article/yahoo-u-turn-on-keywords-meta-tag/4561514
[...] Google has said they do not read meta tags content but we still advise to put your targeted keywords in <meta name=”keywords”/> [...]
It’s indeed a great post. Very informative. Very enlightening. Thanks for posting…