Keywords Question
- Thread starter insurnub
- Start date
- 10,275
I always forget but I think that's the one where it doesn't make much difference any more.
- 117
Google meta keywords and you'll find that most major search engines don't use them anymore to index your page. I found that most people suggest 10-15 keywords and they say it can't hurt to use them but most likely it won't really help. It doesn't take that long to add them so I say why not try.
scrabble
Expert
- 74
Do a google search using the keywords you would like to be found by. Visit the top sites listed and while there, right click and select view source. That will list the HTML code including their keywords. I went through the process a while ago and like chumps said it Isn't a major factor anymore.
- 2,024
Supposedly yahoo and bing still use them, but they have little to no weight, and google doesn't even look at them.
- 10,275
I have seen people that do that. That is...a bunch of key words in the description that are incoherent instead of a sentence.
It seems as if you might rank well, but the average consumer will see it as spam and skip over it no matter what position it is in.
Maybe black hat? Maybe not.
It seems as if you might rank well, but the average consumer will see it as spam and skip over it no matter what position it is in.
Maybe black hat? Maybe not.
mpalma
Expert
I agree - Google doesn't pay much attention to them anymore, but if you do decide to include them, stick with 1 or 2.
I would focus more on including the keywords in the content of your website.
I would focus more on including the keywords in the content of your website.
- 1,432
Matt Cutts of Google says that using the keyword meta tag is a total waste of time when it comes to doing SEO for Google.
I don't believe that any of the major engines look at the keyword meta tag to determine relevance.
This means that any positive benefit you might get from using the keyword meta tags will be to rank higher in search engines that may give you a very, very small percentage of your traffic.
Maybe 1% or 3%. I'm not sure of the percentage, but it is very low. Not only does Google dominate search, it feeds search results to a lot of the smaller players. Yahoo! (and probably Bing) does the same thing, so the search engines that aren't getting results from Google, Yahoo! or Bing are fighting over a very small sliver of the pie.
Also it may be possible that you can still be hit with a duplicate content penalty if you use the same set of keywords on multiple pages. (I'm not sure if this is still true, but it was at one time.)
I don't believe that any of the major engines look at the keyword meta tag to determine relevance.
This means that any positive benefit you might get from using the keyword meta tags will be to rank higher in search engines that may give you a very, very small percentage of your traffic.
Maybe 1% or 3%. I'm not sure of the percentage, but it is very low. Not only does Google dominate search, it feeds search results to a lot of the smaller players. Yahoo! (and probably Bing) does the same thing, so the search engines that aren't getting results from Google, Yahoo! or Bing are fighting over a very small sliver of the pie.
Also it may be possible that you can still be hit with a duplicate content penalty if you use the same set of keywords on multiple pages. (I'm not sure if this is still true, but it was at one time.)
So why even have them in first place??
mpalma
Expert
There are still many other search engines that pay attention to the keyword meta tag. I believe Yahoo still does. It's not something to focus your attention on. I would focus more on Title tags and page content.
