Google doesn't look at "meta"tags?

[Mmfh]

I just watched a official google video where he says that Google doesn't care about "meta" keywords anymore.

So, if Google doesn't use Meta keywords than how do they decide which keywords to rank you for?

Do they crawl your site and rank you for the most relevant keywords to your title or url that you use the most?

I thought meta keywords were a big deal, what do you guys think?

How do you structure your sites so google ranks you for the right keywords? Especially if you couldn't get the keyword domain name you wanted.

Thanks very much!

Mm

[jaybaker]

I try and use a 3%-4% keyword density per 350 words.

[nitin22]

Google does not care abt meta keywords. They check content of your website and backlinks anchor text. Then based upon their algo they decide if you should rank for that keyword.

Also be very careful when using meta description. If you have not provided any meta description, google does not care, however if you provide meta description, in google results your meta description will be displayed instead of the actual content.

[VegasGreg]

Google and Yahoo do not use meta keywords. Not sure about any of the others.

The proper use of the keywords you are targeting should be in your title, description, H1 and H2s and of course in the actual content.

Google knows what words are in the content and they don't need to be told in the meta keywords section. That also helps avoid the people who stuff too many non-relevant keywords there trying to rank for everythiong under the sun regardless of the material's content.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by Mmfh

I just watched a official google video where he says that Google doesn't care about "meta" keywords anymore.

So, if Google doesn't use Meta keywords than how do they decide which keywords to rank you for?

Do they crawl your site and rank you for the most relevant keywords to your title or url that you use the most?

I thought meta keywords were a big deal, what do you guys think?

How do you structure your sites so google ranks you for the right keywords? Especially if you couldn't get the keyword domain name you wanted.

Thanks very much!

Mm

It's been this way for about 5-6 years, it's just few have accepted this fact. To me, it's almost like a test, good SEOers have known that the keyword meta tag has been pretty much useless, it's the "less knowledgable" SEOers that talk about the keyword meta tag.

Google still claims to use over 200 criteria for ranking pages. There's still the page title, anchor text, text content, etc, for Google to use.

Again, I've tried telling people for years, but have just been ignored by most.

[Mmfh]

You guys are fast with the replies! I learn something new just about everyday. That's good I guess.

Thanks for this information, knowing what Google looks at will help me focus on the right way to setup my sites.

Thank you!

Mm

[Traffic_Is_King]

I read some of the posts on here. You guys need to check the latest video from Matt Cutts about Google changing title tags. Google does look at Metatag descriptions and keywords. They will actually use this when indexing your site. May also play a factor in ranking. It was awhile that I thought they didn't but i can't keep up with the Google algorithm games. They do what they want to do.

[WareTime]

Originally Posted by nitin22

Google does not care abt meta keywords. They check content of your website and backlinks anchor text. Then based upon their algo they decide if you should rank for that keyword.

Also be very careful when using meta description. If you have not provided any meta description, google does not care, however if you provide meta description, in google results your meta description will be displayed instead of the actual content.

Yes and No.

The meta description is what you'll see in the serps if you do site:yoursite.com and in SOME but not all searches. On a real search Google will use your description, OR the part of the page it thinks is best.

In practice what that means is the description is your chance to craft a nice couple of sentences to get the click from the user.

Yes, meta tags are dead with Google, but not all others. Also just because they are ignored now doesn't mean google won't change their mind someday and start using them again, so if you have them leave them and on new pages it won't hurt you to add them.