Thread: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

Google has announced that they don't care about meta="keywords"


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU"]YouTube - Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking[/ame]

more info here if you want to see what our members said about it

google doesn't use the keywords meta tag at all!


uhh.. why isn't the video showing? I used the youtube tags..ahh, if you use the youtube tags, the video doesn't show.. they should be removed

Ha! Good to finally hear it from the horse's mouth that Google totally ignore the "keywords" meta tag! Now I don't need to worry about all the "duplicate keywords meta tags" that I have all over my sites, and which the SEO analyser websites often complain about.

Thanks for posting!

I really don't think the most important message MC is trying to pass over is the fact that G is totally ignoring Meta tags (we knew this already), but rather that:

(from my point of view)

1. Other SE's still look for those
2. G actually uses meta descriptions
3. Brands/Trademarks are getting more and more weight each day
4. Exact match domain names get a huge bonus
5. MC always wears ugly T-shirts

That's nothing new. Numerous tests have shown that of the major search engines only Yahoo uses meta keywords but for discovery rather than ranking.

They do use the meta descriptions but that's just for display in search results.

lol@Shenron #5
The meta descriptions are very important, but I'm always said the keywords were worthless even for other search engines.
I get 75-80% of my traffic from google, I don't really care about other search engines

I don't know why this recent video seems to be such a revelation for so many in the SEO field. I have heard Cutts say in person at Pubcon the last two years that meta keywords and meta description elements in NO way affect your rankings. I've seen him, John Mu, and other Googlers say it repeatedly online as well. But for some reason a video I guess just makes it real for some reason. /shrug

The meta description IS still very important... not from a rank perspective... but because it's often shown as the snippet in the SERPs (if your URL begin ranked doesn't have a DMOZ entry AND your meta description has ALL of the keywords from the search phrase in it). When your meta description is shown in the SERPs, having a good description with a call to action can drastically affect your click-thru-rate.

Originally Posted by Brandon Sheley

uhh.. why isn't the video showing? I used the youtube tags..ahh, if you use the youtube tags, the video doesn't show.. they should be removed

When you use the YouTube tags, you have to use only the video ID and not the rest of the URL.

It is common knowledge in the SEO industry that that meta tags have not affected rankings since the 1990s. Only newbies think that meta tags will boost their sites.

The video is useful to reinforce that. I still see designers who tell clients that SEO has been taken care of because they set up the meta tags. RLOL

Originally Posted by TopDogger

It is common knowledge in the SEO industry that that meta tags have not affected rankings since the 1990s. Only newbies think that meta tags will boost their sites.

The video is useful to reinforce that. I still see designers who tell clients that SEO has been taken care of because they set up the meta tags. RLOL

meta descriptions are still important

Originally Posted by Brandon Sheley

meta descriptions are still important

Even more important than ever....