Should I still use Meta Keywords?

June 11, 2009
Rob Ackerman

Meta keywords are becoming less important for SEO. Using them has become almost a personal decision. However, before you make your decision, there are some pieces of information that you need to know before making your decision.

Google does NOT use them.

Yahoo does.

Ask may support keywords.

Microsoft Live (and now Bing) keyword support is not yet determined

According to John Mueller (a Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google) in response to whether Google uses meta keywords "You're right in that we generally ignore the contents of the "keywords" meta tag. As with other possible meta tags, feel free to place it on your pages if you can use it for other purposes - it won't count against you."

According to Yahoo's help on "How do I improve the ranking of my web site in the search results?" Use a "keyword" meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.

While the true SEO value may be questionable, Google "generally ignores" them and Yahoo recommends them. It definitely doesn't count against you (if done properly). The keyword meta tag offers another place for your keywords, and can also serve to mantain the focus of your pages. I personally like to use the keywords tags to organize my thoughts of what should be on the page, like an outline to my page. Not only does this serve to keep me on topic, but it also helps me analyze my pages to make sure I hit all the topics I wanted to cover.