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Let's stop one of the biggest SEO myth

by Poglia
16 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Every day I see many, many webmasters trying to do On-Page SEO with the "keywords" meta tag. Well, Google doesn't read it at all since years! The only meta tags understood by Google are:

- Description
- Robots
- Googlebot
- Google
- Verify-V1
- Content-Type
- Refresh

I already knowed it, but now there is an official confirmation:

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking
Meta tags - Webmasters/Site owners Help

You can still use the "keywords" tag for other search engines like Bing, but keep in mind that 70% of the web searches are made with Google.

I hope it helps.
#biggest #myth #seo #stop
  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    I guess to many of us this is preaching to the choir but you're quite possibly right that some folks do still think meta keywords has value to Google.

    What I found far more interesting than meta keyword was the line about meta description. Matt is saying that they don't use the Meta Description at all for rankings..

    Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don't use the description meta tag in our ranking.
    I've always included meta keywords at a basic level and meta description as I've always accepted that Yahoo, Bing etc do utilise them and that Google often used the description in the snippet, I wasn't aware however that Google pays no attention at all to the meta description in it's ranking algo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
    Yeah, not really groundbreaking news but it's good to hear it from the horses mouth so to speak. Probably worth keeing them in for the other search engines and of course it is still a good way as a component of your keyword research on your competitor's sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author terryd
    I would still use them non the less, Google isn't the only search engine in town and if it does no harm in having them then why not?
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  • Profile picture of the author dave147
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author catalinp
      Even though the meta description has no value in ranking a website, it still has value in getting the actual visitors from SE in my opinion.

      The meta description is not shown all the times as the description of your link in the search engine results, but most times does. And from getting listed in the SE results to getting the visitor is one more step: the click.

      It is up to us to get the visitor click that link, and using a proper call to action in the description to make the surfer click and visit your site depends entirly to us - so from this point of view it still has a high importance and might help in stealing clicks from better ranked results than you.
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      • Profile picture of the author Rendix
        Just because Google claims to ignore them does not mean that you should. Google does hold the largest market share of searchers, but they are not the only game in town.

        There should be about 5-10 KW in your meta anyway, don't stuff that bastage.

        Who's to say that yahoo, msn, bing -- etc don't use meta information?

        I wouldn't set out to "stop" it, it's not really a "myth", it's just a facet of technology that is possibly past it's prime.

        Would you call cassette tapes a myth? No. They are just past their prime.
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  • Profile picture of the author CliveG
    This sort of thing is still taught on many courses and by some schools as it's still included in text books, along with<font> tags and all the other things that were deprecated years ago. Makes me mad!
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  • Profile picture of the author iblbuilder
    So if I stuff my meta tags full of keywords will I get better rankings? Should I also submit to 1000 directories and do 10,000 reciprocal exchanges?

    I jest, but thats what a lot of people still do!
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    • Profile picture of the author WendellC
      Originally Posted by iblbuilder View Post

      So if I stuff my meta tags full of keywords will I get better rankings? Should I also submit to 1000 directories and do 10,000 reciprocal exchanges?

      I jest, but thats what a lot of people still do!
      Just the other day someone who was starting to learn about SEO whispered this "secret" to me: "Hey, maybe I can put white text on a white background and get a lot of keywords on my page that way without the customer seeing it. What do you think?"

      I said, "I think that's an excellent to get your site banned."

      Wendell
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg Jacobs
    First off, I dont listen to anything that Google officially announces. (or anything Mr. Cutts says or hints unofficially) they know less than we give them credit for once you break the glass and see the wizard. (though to their credit, they are lightyears ahead of anybody else)

    Secondly, I see no harm in including that tags and possible benefit (for other engines or googles hidden ways)

    So what is the point then of not including them. (aside from philosophical value which may be paid at the cost of realized value)
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  • Profile picture of the author amerigo
    Very good point has been brought up here.

    A real world example. One of my recent sites, which has 108,000,000 competition, was able to rank on the first page with 0 meta tags whatsoever.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rendix
      I don't doubt the lack of significance.

      I think different people use different search engines just the same way different people (personas) tend to congregate on certain websites.

      I would agree that google holds the huge majority, but who's to say for example, that people that search for homemade beed jerky tend to use yahoo more (this is a huge hypothetical generalization here - lol).

      If yahoo, per say, had more searches for for "homemade beef jerky" than google, wouldn't you agree that meta information could be important still to a site within that niche?

      Do you think that google has more searches for every keyword in every niche without fail?
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  • Profile picture of the author JMartin
    For me, the keywords meta tags (ah, I miss the old days) is just part of building a complete site. Never know who might use it, even if G doesn't.

    However, adding it as part of site dev and believing it's a factor for ranking in G is a different matter.
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  • Profile picture of the author TristanPerry
    Meta keywords are dead.

    Meta descriptions are very useful and can be the difference between getting many visitors and getting 0 (or very few) visitors to your website if you get mainly SE traffic.

    But yeah, meta keywords are pointless. Too much potential for spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author SakeSushi
    well, no harm putting in, you never know what the other SE are looking for.

    1 thing good about meta keywords is that we can use it to find out what keywords our competitor are using =D

    btw does meta keywords affect adsense sites? i not sure if its me, but for me, a typical new website, the ads show relevancy a lot faster when i insert in the keyword.
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