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Web Marketing Tip: Don’t Waste Time on Meta Keyword Tags

August 23rd, 2010, Category: Web Marketing Tip

Last night I had a rather unusual web marketing meeting with the one and only Basil Brush.

Meta Keyword Tags and Talking Animals

On the way home – after we’d scavenged through a few bins – Basil threw one final question in my direction. “If you add meta keyword tags to my home page, will I rank better in Google”, he asked, banana skin attached squarely to his forehead.

Disregarding the fact I was talking to a famous fox with garbage wedged to his furry brow, I responded: “Don’t waste your boom boom time Basil!”

“Meta keywords”, I mused, “do not help you rank any better with search engines. Google has very publicly stated their algorithm ignores meta keywords entirely.”

We shook paws and went our separate ways.

  • http://creativepen.co.uk Matt

    still not better to have them than not tho? It doesn’t take long to make gravy.

    Interesting advice, thanks!

  • http://www.bml-creative.co.uk David

    We’ve done away with keywords for a while now and it hasn’t impacted our ranking at all. The only thing it offers is a chance for your competitors to see exactly what keywords you are targeting! Stay clear :-)

  • http://designbit.co.uk Anthony

    Good point David – I must admit I often look at meta keywords when undertaking a competitive analysis.

  • http://www.crearedesign.co.uk/ Victoria Blount

    This is a good point and i don’t think clients should be of the opinion that meta keywords will project them to the top of Google, but i also think that adding meta keywords with multiple other SEO techniques cant hurt.

  • http://www.lemon-fresh.co.uk Danny Cheeseman

    Meta keywords may not help with SEO, but for development they are an easy way to define the keywords for continuation of development purposes. When you are dealing with a lot of websites, meta keywords are handy to jog your memory of the specific keywords that are being used on the page. It saves you having to go through and read everything and work them out for yourself if you havent touched the website in a few months.

  • http://www.googleseoservices.com.au/ seo sydney

    I am exactly in your favor to keep meta keyword. Thanks for sharing.

  • http://www.creativepen.co.uk Matt Pattinson

    Yeah David,

    Deffo a good point. Like Anthony, I too I often look at meta keywords when undertaking a competitive analysis for a web copy project.

    Matt

  • http://www.websitefacility.co.uk John Asbury

    Interesting, however do other search engines like bing, yahoo etc take any notice of meta tags? or are they completely redundant?

  • http://www.firstcliq.com Cincinnati Web Desgin

    Interesting information. I have read similar content on the same topic. I would like to add some additional data just for another perceptive.

    I just finished a site for a client. Due to the heavy use of Flash there was limited actual SEO content in the body code.

    I had to rely solely on about 50 words of html text content and meta tags for the client’s SEO campaign. I have to say that I do believe that the meta tags did provide some initial assistance in acquiring page one for this client.

  • http://www.webbgear.co.uk David Webb

    Fully agree, meta keywords have long been off the menu.

    David.

  • http://www.swimminghippo.co.uk/ SEO Midlands

    This has been a much debated topic for a while now. Over at Swimming Hippo, we still use meta keywords as we think it has impact in other ways, such as other search engines.