Meta Keywords - Should I define them myself
-
Hi All,
Im sure this has been answered somewhere but I couldn't find it. SEOQuake etc suggest you should define meta keywords. However I was under the impression that this was not best practice
Can anyone confirm what I should do/ is best practice?
Cheers
Bowey
-
Actually I believe the "most correct" answer to this is - do not use meta keywords if your main search engine is Google. If you are trying to rank on Baidu, 360, Yandex or other search engines it may help you (but don't overspam.)
The generic advice of "don't do it" disregards the possibility of optimising for other engines as most English-speaking work is done for Google.
Otherwise, agree with the two other answers you've received. Just be aware of your goals and you'll be fine.
-
Completely agree to Thomas! Including keyword Meta tag in the page will never really help you with SEO or any kind of rankings but on the other hand it will exactly tell your competitors what you are focusing on each page of the website.
This might help them align their strategies against you and kick you out from the better SERP positions in search engine from the targeted key phrases.
Hope this helps!
-
Don't use meta keywords the only thing that they do is show your competitors what you want to rank for.
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
-
Brand page meta tag
I have around 100 brands on my website (with 100 different pages.) Please suggest me best way to create meta tags for all brand pages.
Technical SEO | | Obbserv0 -
Keyword links in footer
Hi - I am trying to help a site to get out from under a Google manual action penalty - down as "Partial Matches - Unnatural Links to site".
Technical SEO | | StevieD
I am checking through their links - the site that links most to them is a local directory style site - it has 2,682 links back into 1 page (Home) The directory site was built by the web co. that built my clients' site and they put a keyword link in the footer of the directory site - the keyword was "Buy Truffles". All my instincts say that is a bad thing! But - this is what is perplexing me - they are ranking no.1 for that keyword! Whereas they have lost rankings (i.e. not top 50) for all the other keywords they were targeting. So I don't get it! Can anyone explain why this is. I feel I should I get that link removed but don't want to take out their only ranking keyword! Webmaster shows about 55 different pages in the directory site have a link back to my client. Hope you can help.
Cheers - Steve0 -
Meta description tag problems according to an seo tool
hi, my site is www.in2town.co.uk I am using an seo tool to check on my site and how to improve the seo. The tool is here. http://www.juxseo.com/report/view/51ebf9deab900 for some reason it has brought up errors, it claims i have not got a meta description even though i have and have doubled checked in my source code the errors it has brought up is as follows, and i would like to know if this is a fault of the seo tool or am i doing something wrong Does the description tag exist?0/1 <a id="sub_toggle_12" class="sub_toggle contract_sub"></a>Hide Info Description Tag: Explanation: The meta description tag does not help your rankings but it is your opportunity to encourage prospects to click. The meta description should describe the content of your web page, include a strong call to action, and include your keyword. Action: Make sure you are using the meta description tag. It is found in the section of your page. checkboxIs there only one description tag?0/2<a id="sub_toggle_13" class="sub_toggle expand_sub"></a>More InfocheckboxIs your description less than 156 characters?0/1<a id="sub_toggle_14" class="sub_toggle expand_sub"></a>More InfocheckboxIs your keyword in the description tag?0/3 <a id="sub_toggle_15" class="sub_toggle expand_sub"></a>More Info it also says about the canocial tag which it claims i have more than one Is the canonical tag optmized? Is there only one canonical tag?0/4 <a id="sub_toggle_10" class="sub_toggle contract_sub"></a>Hide Info Explanation: You only need one of these to direct a search engine. Don't muddy the waters. Action: Make sure you only have one canonical tag. This only applies if you use the canonical tag. any help and advice would be greatregards
Technical SEO | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Why are these pages duplicates when canonical is defined?
The SEOmoz reports indicate that the following pages are duplicates even though the canonical tag has been added. http://www.designquotes.com.au/dq/web/get-quotes/quotes http://www.designquotes.com.au/dq/web/get-quotes/brief Is this normal?
Technical SEO | | designquotes0 -
Sudden SERP stop for main keyword.
Hey guys, I have a website with about 30 Google indexed pages. Most of my pages are perfoming well for my keywords. My homepage recently started doing extremely well. Number 4 overall for a highly competitive keyword/niche. Then after a week it dropped completely off the map. It still shows for secondary and tertiary keywords. But my primary keyword does not rank anywhere. I checked as deep as 50 pages. It's been 3 weeks now. Any ideas of what might have happened? Is there really a sandbox? Could I maybe have been Panda slapped? Or do you think it is more likely just a technical/SEO issue. It just seems odd that it jumped so high and then disappeared??
Technical SEO | | VictorVC0 -
Domain authority and keyword difficulty
I know there are too many variables for a certain answer, however do people take their domain authority into account when using keyword difficulty tool? I have a new domain which only has a score of seven at the moment. When using the keyword searching tool what is the maximum difficulty level keywords people would target initially? Obviously I would seek to increase the difficulty of the words over time but to start off its a hard choice between keywords which can be ranked for in a reasonable period of time and the keywords which are getting enough traffic to make the effort worthwhile.
Technical SEO | | Grumpy_Carl0 -
Outranking a competitor when their domain name is the keyword
Hi I'd just like to ask the opinion of my fellow members here : We are currently ranking second for a very important keyword and would obviously like the top spot on the SERP - the site that is ranking first has the domain name as the keyword phrase(along with a good amount of quality links from a variety of domains) - now I know it is possible to outrank them since I do remember reading about this in one of Rands posts(I think it was the whole white hat black hat one he posted recently) - bascially we have more domain authority, slightly less links but from double the amount of root domains and a higher page authority too! Does having the keyword as your domain make THAT much of a difference when we are(imo) quite close in terms of great content and link profiles(and all the onpage factors) ? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | DanHill0