Should u use meta keyword tags in 2018?
Have you had a custom audit wrote or one of them emails saying “We can get your website to number 1 on Google.” When you open the audit they are suggesting meta keywords!!!
Or even worse
A Website developer is saying “you need meta keywords.”
I can say definitively before you go through this that keywords are no longer relevant in fact I would go as far to say that meta keywords are dead. Taking these meta keywords out of your web pages would have one positive I can think of a faster load speed.
Read on as i expose meta keywords. Towards the bottom there is some original research to back my findings up.
Meta keywords are no longer relevant and have not been relevant for quite a few years.
Keywords date back quite a few years and search engines have not used them for many years. Google stopped using them long before it became official in September 2009 when, Matt Cutts, posted on the official Google Blog.
Also In October of that same year, 2009, at SMX East, Yahoo! announced they no longer use the meta keywords
“Today, it’s pretty clear the meta keyword tag is dead in terms of SEO value. Sure, it might have value for contextual ad systems or serve as a signal to ‘bots plying the web looking for topics to target, but as far as search goes, that tag flat lined years ago as a booster.”
Google does not use keywords at all the only time they might check them is if you have too many it will not help your website at all. Stop wasting your time writing meta keywords as Google ignores them.
Bing does not use keywords apart from to detect spam so again they will not help your website.
Here is matt cuts a little while back explaining that Google does not use Meta keywords tag.
An example bellow of keyword stuffing even today
<meta name="keywords" content="LADIES FESTIVAL WEEKENDS, MASONIC BANQUETS, MASONIC LADIES NIGHTS,LADIES NIGHTS IN BOURNEMOUTH,LADIES FESTIVAL HOTELS,MASONIC EVENTS,MASONIC LADIES WEEKENDS,WEDDING RECEPTIONS,CIVIL CEREMONIES,WEDDING BREAKFASTS,WEDDING VENUES,WEDDING HOTELS IN BOURNEMOUTH,BOURNEMOUTH WEDDINGS,DINNER PARTIES,LUNCH PARTIES,AFTERNOON TEAS,CHRISTMAS PARTIES,NEW YEAR PARTIES,PRIVATE DINING,ACCOMMODATION IN BOURNEMOUTH,BOURNEMOUTH HOTELS,">.
You have to imagine this as one page and would all them keywords be relevant to the searcher. Concentrate your efforts on keeping searchers happy.
You might even want to spend time writing good Titles and meta descriptions.
So to confirm that we do not need the keyword meta keyword tag I checked the top 5 results in 4 search engines for a pretty competitive term.
e commerce according to Semrush 78% competitive
Starting with the first search engine
Bing
1st result Wikipedia no Meta keywords.
2nd result Tech Target no Meta keywords.
4th result Investopedia no Meta keywords.
5th result The Guardian no Meta keywords.
The results in Bing show the top 5 sites with no keywords. So to be in the top of Bing for a competitive keywords you don’t need keywords.
One screen shot I thought I would share will searching was with the Guardian newspaper they deserve a mention for being creative. A really good concept of marketing different.
For the next set of results I have used Yandex the Russian search engine.
1st result Wikipedia no Meta keywords.
2nd result Investopedia no Meta keywords.
3rd result Techtarget no Meta keywords.
4th result Google Developers no Meta keywords.
5th result Awwwards yes but used more as a description
So a little surprise at the end there with one website using meta keywords. I think so far it’s very easy to assume Meta keywords are dead. But let’s continue.
Baidu the Chinese search engine this should be interesting.
1st result Wikipedia no Meta keywords.
2nd result :fanyi yes keywords
3rd result ecommercetimes yes quite a few
4th result ecwid no Meta keywords.
5th result sap yes keywors
So quite an interesting find but still there were two sites without. So it would be safe to say they are not needed or essential.
And now for the finale set of results the big G themselves Google.
1st result Wikipedia no Meta keywords.
2nd result Thebalance no Meta keywords.
3rd result EcommerceTimes Yes keywords
4th result Network Solutions no Meta keywords.
5th result The Guardian no Meta keywords.
With Google’s results only one website had Meta keywords so for sure if you were in any doubt if to use keywords they are not needed.
To sum all the results up we were never going to find many sites using meta keywords. The Chinese search engine was a little more surprising but there you go.
Can you think of a good reason to have keywords or do you disagree with me get in contact.
I am always open to suggestion.
Matt Cutts. 19 Mar 2012 . How much time should I spend on meta tags, and which ones matter?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBTBEfd7z_Y. [Accessed 25 December 2017].