The suspicions of many developers and SEO operatives have been confirmed: Google doesn't care about our Keywords.
Well, at least not keywords housed in meta tags. According to the official Google Webmaster blog in a post released on Monday, Matt Cutts explains Google's position on the usage of meta tags, focusing especially on keywords.
Q: Does Google ever use the "keywords" meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no... Due to its overwhelming abuse, Google has not factored meta keywords into its search results ranking for several years; opting instead to weigh actual page content and inbound links more heavily as a source of relevancy.
While this may appear to be a blessing with one less thing to have to keep updated, some have expressed continuing its use as "meta insurance." What do you think should be the practice moving forward? Keep keywords for potential use by other search engines or "just in case?" Disregard them as a waste of time and a waste of a few extra bytes? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Wuori
Sep 25, 2009
I’ve always thought they were a waste of time. Even back in the late 90s. Meta Keywords are the bloody-horizontal rules and animated under-construction icons of SEO.
Will
Sep 25, 2009
I think we’re overdue for a renaissance of bloody-horizontal rules and animated under-construction icons.
Will
Sep 25, 2009
Also, spinning 3D logos.
Robert Enriquez
Sep 26, 2009
they work for other search engines but not for Google. Personally, I don’t use them because they’re a waste of time.
Building back links, and having correct title tags should on top of everybody’s list.
Will
Sep 28, 2009
Does anyone actually use the other available meta tags (author, content-type, copyright, robots, etc.)?
Wuori
Sep 28, 2009
@Will, the only metas I use frequently are for rss links and charsets.
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