In this post, you\u2019ll learn everything you need to know about meta keywords and meta tags.<\/p>\n
In particular:<\/p>\n
- \n
- What are meta keywords?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Why meta keywords are no longer relevant for Google?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Which Search Engines still use Meta Keywords?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Should you remove meta keywords from your pages?<\/a><\/li>\n
- What are meta tags?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Meta tags that ALL search engines understand and are important for SEO<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What are meta keywords?<\/h2>\n
Meta keywords are added to the head of a page and look like this:<\/p>\n
<meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"meta keywords, meta tags, SEO, search engine optimization\"><\/code><\/p>\nThe name of the meta tag is keywords<\/em> and the value is defined in the content<\/em> part.<\/p>\n
In the content<\/em> part, you are supposed to provide the keywords<\/a><\/strong> that you want the particular page to rank for in search engines.<\/p>\n
Search engines read the meta keywords tag as part of the crawling and indexing process and use them in the ranking process.<\/p>\n
Like other meta tags, meta keywords are not visible to the user but they are part of a page’s source code.<\/p>\n
To view meta keywords (or any other meta tag) that a page is using, open the page in a web browser, right click and select VIEW SOURCE CODE<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
Locate the top part of the page that is enclosed in
<head><\/head><\/em><\/code> tags and look for META.<\/p>\nHere is an example of the meta tags used by this<\/a><\/strong> page.<\/p>\n
![\"Meta](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/meta-tags-in-html.jpg\")
Meta Tags in HTML Code<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Why meta keywords are no longer relevant?<\/h2>\n
As you might have already guessed, having the keywords you wanted a page to rank in a meta tag, making it very easy to manipulate search algorithms<\/strong><\/a> and soon enough people starting spamming search engines.<\/p>\n
The result is that the major search engines decided to drop meta keywords and remove them from their ranking process.<\/p>\n
In particular:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Google dropped<\/a><\/strong> meta keywords in 2009<\/li>\n
- Yahoo stopped<\/a><\/strong> using meta keywords in 2009<\/li>\n
- Bing announced<\/a> <\/strong>in 2014 that they no longer consider meta keywords for ranking purposes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Which Search Engines still use Meta Keywords?<\/h2>\n
It might be a surprise for many people but two important search engines still use meta keywords as part of the ranking process.<\/p>\n
Yandex<\/a><\/strong>\u2013 the most popular Russian search engine is using meta keywords<\/a> <\/strong>as a way to determine the page\u2019s relevance to search queries.<\/p>\n
Baidu<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 the most popular Chinese search engine, is also using the meta keywords tag during the crawling and ranking phase.<\/p>\n
Should you remove meta keywords from your pages?<\/h2>\n
It depends on the case. If you care about organic traffic<\/a><\/strong> from Yandex and Baidu and you already have the meta keywords in your pages, then you can leave them.<\/p>\n
If your main focus is Google traffic then you don\u2019t need to add meta keywords for the sake of Yandex or Baidu. It\u2019s a very lightweight SEO signal that does not deserve too much attention.<\/p>\n
Best Practices for using meta keywords<\/strong><\/p>\n
If you do decide to add the meta keywords tag back then make sure that you avoid keyword stuffing. Add only 3 or 4 keywords that are highly related to the content of the page.<\/p>\n
If meta keywords are no longer valid for Google, what you should do?<\/h2>\n
Google is by far the most popular search engine and while is not using meta keywords for years now, there are some meta tags that are very important for Google rankings.<\/p>\n
What are meta tags?<\/h2>\n
Meta tags are snippets of text added to the head of a page that help search engines understand what a page is all about. These tags have a predefined format and are only visible to search engines.<\/p>\n
Meta tags that search engines understand and are important for SEO<\/h2>\n
Besides the meta keywords tag which is only applicable to Yandex, Baidu and possibly other smaller search engines, some meta tags are important for SEO for ALL search engines.<\/p>\n
In particular the:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Title tag<\/li>\n
- Meta Descriptions tag<\/li>\n
- Meta Robots tag<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Title Tag<\/h3>\n
The title tag has this format:<\/p>\n
<title>What are meta tags and why they are important for SEO<\/title><\/code><\/p>\nand is one of the most critical SEO elements.<\/p>\n
The title tag is important for SEO because:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Gives search engines a big clue as to what the page is about<\/li>\n
- Is shown in the search results (first line of search snippet)<\/li>\n
- Is shown as the tab title in browsers<\/li>\n
- Is shown as the title of a post when shared in social media networks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For more information on how to optimize your page title tags for SEO, read the following guides:<\/p>\n
- \n
- How to create SEO friendly title tags<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Difference between a page title and H1 Tag<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Meta Descriptions Tag<\/h3>\n
The meta description tag has this format:<\/p>\n
<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meta keywords are not used by Google, Bing and Yahoo but they are taken into account by other search engines.\"\/><\/code><\/p>\nand maybe shown as part of the search snippet in the SERPS (search engine results pages).<\/p>\n
The meta description tag is important for SEO because:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- A compelling meta description tag will encourage users to click on your search snippet and this means more traffic and higher CTR (click-through rates).<\/li>\n
- Search Snippets with a high CTR are more likely to appear in the top positions of the results than snippets with a low CTR. It\u2019s an indirect SEO factor that is gaining more importance in the last few years.<\/li>\n
- Search engines tend to highlight search terms<\/a><\/strong> appearing in a meta description tag and this makes them more relevant to users, which leads to more clicks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For more information on how to best optimize your meta description tags for SEO, read the following guides:<\/p>\n
- \n
- How to optimize your meta descriptions<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Ideal Meta description length<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Meta Robots Tag<\/h3>\n
The meta robots meta tag has the following format:<\/p>\n
![\"Meta](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/meta-robots-tag.jpg\")
Meta Robots Tag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n and is used to instruct search engines on how the particular page should be treated when it comes to search.<\/p>\n
The most important values are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- index – Allow search engines to index a page and show it in the search results<\/li>\n
- follow – Follow any external links found on the page<\/li>\n
- noindex – Instruct search engines not to index the page and not to show it in the search results<\/li>\n
- nofollow<\/a><\/strong> – Don’t follow external links from this page<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For a detailed description of all meta robots tag values, read this guide<\/a><\/strong> from Google.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The meta robots is important for SEO because a misconfiguration can lead to a page not being index by search engines and this means no rankings or traffic.<\/p>\n
- Ideal Meta description length<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- How to optimize your meta descriptions<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Difference between a page title and H1 Tag<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- How to create SEO friendly title tags<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Yahoo stopped<\/a><\/strong> using meta keywords in 2009<\/li>\n
- Why meta keywords are no longer relevant for Google?<\/a><\/li>\n