The meta keywords tag serves as a means to inform search engines about the topics addressed on a webpage. However, does the presence of meta keywords impact your organic search rankings?
The meta keywords tag is a tool to communicate the page’s covered topics to search engines.
But the question remains: can meta keywords influence your organic search rankings?
Continue reading to discover if there exists any correlation between meta keywords and enhanced Google rankings.
The Assertion: Meta Keywords as a Ranking Factor
What exactly are meta keywords?
Meta keywords are one type of meta tag that resides in the HTML HEAD section of a webpage. If this chapter were to include meta keywords, they would appear as follows:
htmlCopy code
<meta name=”keywords” content=”meta keywords, html tags, meta tags, Google ranking factors”>
The use of meta keywords has long been debated in search rankings, primarily due to their ability to incorporate a seemingly endless array of keywords into a page.
The Case Against Meta Keywords as a Ranking Factor
In 2009, Google Search Central released a post addressing the meta keywords tag.
The first question was, “Does Google ever utilize keywords meta tag in web search ranking?”
The response? A definitive no.
“Our web search, the widely-used Google.com search engine that serves hundreds of millions of users daily, completely disregards keyword metatags. They hold no sway over our current search rankings.” Why did Google decide to ignore the meta keywords tag?
The rationale behind this decision was rooted in the widespread misuse of the keywords meta tag, dating back many years.
At that time, Google indicated no immediate plans to reverse this policy.
“While it’s theoretically possible that Google might reconsider using this information in the future, it’s highly improbable. Google has been disregarding the keywords meta tag for an extended period, and presently, there’s no compelling reason to alter that stance.”
In Google Search Central’s Advanced SEO documentation, the search giant enumerates the meta tags it acknowledges for search purposes, including the meta description and meta robots.
However, mentioning meta keywords should be consistently present in this documentation.
Yahoo and Bing also disregard the meta keywords tag.
In 2009, Yahoo disclosed during SMX East that they had ceased support for the meta keywords tag several months prior.
In 2014, Bing took a straightforward stance in a blog post titled “Blame The Meta Keyword Tag.”
Their statement was clear:
“Today, it’s evident that the meta keyword tag holds no SEO value. While it might still find use in contextual ad systems or serve as a cue for web-crawling bots seeking topics to target, it has long lost its relevance as a ranking booster in search.”
As recently as 2021, Google updated a page addressing irrelevant keywords, emphasizing that keywords should not be used to “…appear in a list or group or in a context that is unnatural or unrelated to the content.”
Furthermore, Google asserts that employing keyword stuffing anywhere on your webpage might be considered web spam:
“Overloading pages with excessive keywords or numbers creates a detrimental user experience and can adversely affect your site’s ranking.”
In a more recent development, as of July 2023, Google Search Advocate John Mueller reaffirmed what was already widely recognized.
The Verdict on Meta Keywords as a Ranking Factor
Since 2009, Google has consistently informed us that meta keywords hold no sway as a Google ranking factor. Even before that, they had been disregarded for “many years.”
In summary, meta keywords belong to a bygone era of SEO. Therefore, as we move into 2023 and beyond, it is safe to conclude that meta keywords bear no significance in SEO.
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