SEARCHENGINES
Does Google Use The Meta Keywords Tag For Rankings? No It Does Not
It has been a while since I covered the keyword meta tag and for some reason the topic has come up recently, so I decided to cover it again. In short, Google Search still does not use the keyword meta tag for ranking purposes.
Google does not look at the words in your keyword meta tag for search purposes. Adding, removing, spamming or excluding words or the meta tag completely will not matter for your rankings in Google Search.
Google said this back in 2009 and said it again last year in this video. Google also has it posted in its official documentation where it said, “The meta-keyword tag is not used by Google Search, and it has no effect on indexing and ranking at all.”
Google Search does not look at the words in your keyword meta tag at all.
Most recently, John Mueller from Google said in this video, “Just to be clear from the start, the answer is still no. We do not use the contents of the keyword meta tag in Google Search.” “And again, Google Search does not use the keywords meta tag,” he added.
Here is that video:
Then in 2012, Matt Cutts posted another video on the topic and said, “You shouldn’t spend any time on the meta keywords tag. We don’t use it.” He added, “And so a lot of webmasters just keyword stuff there. And so it’s really not all that helpful. So we don’t use meta keywords at all.”
Here is that video:
Then before that in 2009, Matt Cutts posted this video where he said “So we had an interesting question from someone who just asked me, “How much do you use the keyword or keywords meta tag in your main search results?” And the answer is, basically not at all.”
Here is that video:
Now Bing Search may use keywords meta tag still. You may have other uses for meta keywords, such as for internal search, for other content purposes. But for ranking purposes in Google Search, Google does not use it.
Here is a recent poll I posted asking SEOs if they use the keyword meta tag:
Do you still use meta keywords tags on pages you optimize?
rerunning a poll @bill_slawski ran a few years ago— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 30, 2023
This was the poll from Bill, RIP, from a few years ago:
Do you still use meta keywords tags on pages you optimize?
— Bill Slawski ⚓ 🇺🇦 (@bill_slawski) May 29, 2020
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 29, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google’s March 2024 core update completed on April 19th, Google just didn’t confirm it until a week later. Google said its spam reporting tool will add site reputation abuse after May 5. Google responded to concerns over the Chrome IP masking and how it will impact advertisers. Google Knowlwdge Panels has translated sections. Apple Business Connect gains actions with links. Google AI is writing some knowledge panels. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google March 2024 Core Update Finished April 19th (A Week Ago)
The Google March 2024 core update finished a week ago and Google did not tell us until today. It finished officially on April 19, 2024, and took 45 days to roll out after starting on March 5, 2024. Google also said this helped reduce low-quality and unoriginal content in search results by 45%, which is up from their estimate of 40%. -
Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said that the search company will add the upcoming site reputation abuse policy to the spam reporting tool when the policy begins to be enforced. So sometime after May 5, 2024, the report spam form will gain a new option to report site reputation abuse. -
Google Responds To Concerns Over Chrome IP Masking
A week ago, Anu Adegbola wrote a fabulous piece on some new privacy changes that may be coming to Google Chrome in the future named Chrome IP masking and how that may impact advertisers. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, responded to those concerns, saying, “Chrome has not made any recent updates to its IP protection proposal.” -
Google Knowledge Panel With Auto-Translated Texts
Google is auto-translating some of the content within the Google Knowledge Panels and blocks. So if you are in a location where you don’t only speak English, Google may show you your local language as an additional block of text in the knowledge panel. -
Apple Business Connect Actions: Add Links To Apple Maps Local Listing
Apple Business Connect now lets you add links to your local listings that show up in Apple Maps. This is under the “actions” section that enables customers to order food, buy tickets, schedule an appointment, and more. -
Google AI Writing Some Search Knowledge Panels
Google has for a long time used AI to write some knowledge panels. But now Google is labeling some of these AI written knowledge panels with “Al overviews are experimental” as a disclaimer. This may show up for both SGE and non-SGE results, I believe. -
Google Maps Pigeon People
I am not sure where this first started but in Japan there is this group of people who dress up as pigeons when the Google Maps street view cameras drive by. -
Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Offline For Last Days Of Passover 5784
This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.
I will be completely offline, so any social media posts, tweets, anything coming from this site or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.
I won’t be able to reply to comments, remove spam or break any stories on those days. I will catch up when I get back online.
Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics. Oh, and if you have nothing to do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
For more on this holiday, check out Wikipedia.
For all those celebrating the holiday – have a good one and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 26, 2024
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google Publisher Center removes the ability to add publications manually. Google is testing placing the snippet date next to the URL. Google now shows IP ranges for user-triggered fetchers. Google Ads has a new warning for low keyword quality. Google and Microsoft impress with earnings reports. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap. Also, I am offline Monday and Tuesday for the last days of Passover.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Other Great Search Threads:
- As an aside – the 15mb limit is for the HTML file, not for the JS / images / API / rendering, etc., John Mueller on X
- Search indexes the page’s content, so if you want search to understand something about what you’re doing on the page, then put it in the content., John Mueller on X
- The man who killed Google Search?, Hacker News
- This is a known issue, you can read about why and when it happens in our docs, Daniel Waisberg on X
- It’s normal for not everything to be indexed all the time – and sometimes things get dropped from indexing, for example, if they’re not up to par., John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
-
PPC7 days ago
10 Most Effective Franchise Marketing Strategies
-
MARKETING5 days ago
Effective Communication in Business as a Crisis Management Strategy
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
-
SEARCHENGINES7 days ago
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
-
SEO5 days ago
brightonSEO Live Blog
-
PPC6 days ago
9 Ecommerce Trends to Boost Your Business in 2024
-
SEO7 days ago
Measuring Content Impact Across The Customer Journey
-
SEO6 days ago
How To Write ChatGPT Prompts To Get The Best Results