Are Meta-keywords coming back?
-
I'm currently doing some benchmarking for a big realtor site here in México, while looking at the biggest players in the US I noticed most if not all are using the Keywords meta tag in their detail listings.
I've been really open to my client about not using this tag at all given the current common knowledge but when sites like: Trulia.com, Realtor.com, appartments.com and the like, are using them I'm second guessing their utility.
Does anyone have any insights on this? Should or should not we use meta-keywords?
On a side note, there is some interesting microdata going on, in those sites.
-
The short answer is: No. They're not coming back, in the sense that anything has changed or that they carry any more weight than they did last year. All signs point to their continued decline. Google has publicly stated that it carries no positive ranking value.
Technically, Alan is correct - evidence suggest that Yahoo/Bing used Meta keywords as a ranking signal more recently than Google. Most of that evidence is 2+ years old, though, and I've seen no compelling reasons to think that it will tip the balance in any competitive situation on Bing. Even that 2009 article basically says: "Sure, use it, but don't expect much", IMO.
Here's the other problem - Meta keywords has been used as a negative ranking signal, and probably still is to some degree. In other words, you might not gain much or anything from using it, but if you spam it, you could get devalued. My gut feeling is that the negative signal is much, much stronger than the positive one, and even Google may still use it as a negative signal. I'm certain that Yahoo/Bing has used it as a negative signal (not sure if they still do).
I tend to agree that the competitive fears are overblown. Any decent site's keyword targets should be pretty clear - otherwise, it's not a very well SEO'd site.
Personally, if you want to use them, use them - but keep them short, sweet, and relevant. Once you do, get on with your life.
-
I agree, the competitor argument seems meaning less to me.
-
I feel like it could be useful in that it helps with Bing.
Competitors would typically already know what keywords you're targeting, especially if they're using SpyFu or just look at your page or anchor text profile on OSE to see what it's optimized for. I think it's a little silly for that to be the only reason not to use it.
Besides, you can always use it for less-searched keywords and throw your competitor's off
-
couldn't agree more with this ^^
-
From Matt Cutts (Google):
To this day, you still see courts mistakenly believe that meta tags occupy a pivotal role in search rankings. We wanted to debunk that misconception, at least as it regards to Google. Google uses over two hundred signals in our web search rankings, but the keywords meta tag is not currently one of them, and I don’t believe it will be
However, this is from 2009--so I have no idea if they are coming back.
From Bing:
The 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.
KW: Cachet
Notice Alan had this link before me.
-
Bing does technically use it but I strongly recommend against it. If it is part of their algorithm there is no indication that it is a strong indicator. Besides, why would you want your competition knowing what your strategies are. If you think you need to use it I would consult your traffic through Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster tools to see how much of your traffic, if any, is coming from Bing. If it is a high number then maybe consider it. But again, I wouldn't worry about it. Bing says it uses it....doesn't mean it doesn't use it to indicate spammers.
-
You should definitely use them. Just don't be stupid with it and stuff 100s of keywords in there.
Here is a case study showing they still work:
And one of my favorite quotes of all time:
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
David Ogilvy -
Yes you should use the keywords tag, Bing uses it as a signal.
A good and recommended use is misspellings of keywords and alternative keywords
-
Yeah I totally understand using them to see their strategies, but the fact that all of them are doing it, made me second guess, thanx for the answer!
-
no they aren't coming back and I would suggest not using them. I would also suggest tracking your competitors and using that to your advantage. It might be something you already knew, but you might also find a keyword in there you weren't thinking to target that the Google Keyword Tool produces a surprising number of searches for.
That, by the way, is why you should avoid meta keyword tags.
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
-
Changing posts that target same keyword to target SIMILAR keywords
Hello, I'm new to SEO and until the last year I was not aware that creating content that target same keywords would make Google choose only one to rank better. Can I leave the best page (highest ranked one) as it is and change the rest that target the same keyword to target similar keywords ? Just a simple example: I have two pages targeting "best supplements to muscle gain" Leave the best one targeting that keyword and now I change the content of the other to target "best supplements for muscle size" This is the smartest move or I'm missing something here and will make things worse ? Ex: maybe some of tthose pages with same keyword arent ranking for the keyword I want but are ranking for another one that I dont know. I'm really insecure about making changes and end up getting worse results.. Thank you (sorry for my bad english)
On-Page Optimization | | Glinski1 -
Homepage and keywords
hello, another problem i am facing is that if i see in my rankings over 90% of keywords are connected with my home page. When i go to moz pro in Page Optimization Score wanting to optimize the page to rank better there are some propositions the issue is that it is impossible to have over 100 keywords in home page title to optimize it better for each one of these. I have more specific build more specific sites for many of these keywords in the site but google continues to rank all those keywords for the home page and not for the more specific page that could also be optimized for every keyword it deals with. In adition the question i posted in moz with url: https://moz.com/community/q/greek-language-distinctiveness is also mainly connected with above issue. Please help thanks
On-Page Optimization | | anavasis0 -
Google is NOT showing up the right META DESCRIPTION
Hi, Recently I changed titles and meta descriptions of some pages. The problem is that google have updated the titles but not the meta descriptions.. Ive also checekd the source code of the google cached version of the pages crawled and the meta description reflect the changes i did...but the changes don't appear in google. Do you have some solution/advice for the issue? Tx so Much
On-Page Optimization | | tourtravel0 -
Keyword usage in eCommerce Sites - Danger of keyword stuffing?
Hi all, I'm having a little difficulty deciding the best approach for selecting my product titles as I've encountered a few issues. I understand how important it is to try and use the keyword in your product titles, but about the category page that lists all of these products? One of category pages, for example, has 16 products on it. Each has the product title followed by the keyword. I have also used the keyword in the category title, URL, breadcrumbs and two or 3 times (because it was natural) in a paragraph that describes the category etc. Due to the little amount of text on the page, and the sheer amount of times that the keyword is being used, it looks like I am keyword stuffing (By Moz On Page Report Card). I think it came to 23 uses of the same keyword altogether. This is the pretty much teh same throughout every category page on my site, and think I was penalised by Google for this reason. I'm a relatively new site and have done everything by the book as far as I know, so everything is pointing at this to be the cause of the drop/disappearance in ranking. How do I rectify this problem? It's important for the products to have the keyword in, right? As this is one of the SEO practices that is given more weight when considering rankings. I have thought a potential way around this, which is to split the keyword between an exact match, and a variant of the keyword in the titles - only very slightly though. So my product titles would look like 'Product A Exact Match Keyword', 'Product B Variant on Keyword' etc. Could this work? Can anybody advise on the best thing I could try? I have attached an image to give you an idea of the layout of my category pages - Apologies in advance about my embarrassingly rubbish photoshop skills! I wasn't able to upload directly, so I have attached a link. Thanks for reading, John 4iIkmSx
On-Page Optimization | | John_Francis0 -
Optimizing for two keywords
Hi there, my question is: I need to optimze two pages related to almost the same concept but different orientations. One keyword is "emocional intelligence development" and the other word is "emocional intelligence workshops" I can't mix the two pages in one unique page due to web strucutre reasons. Is it possible to optimize each web for each keyword independently although they have the concept emotional intelligence in common? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Keywords & ranking
I am working for a social networking site called Yookos. Much our content is user-generated. How can i add keywords onto the site to make sure our site appears in the SERPS? Also what techniques can i use to make our social site rank highly? Do the other SEO techniques apply here?
On-Page Optimization | | seoworx1230