SEO glossary · M

Meta Keywords

What is the Meta Keywords Tag?

The meta keywords tag is an HTML tag in a page’s head that lists keywords the page is about. Early search engines used it in the 1990s, but because it was so easy to abuse, Google has ignored it for ranking since 2009.

What it looks like

<meta name="keywords" content="seo, seo agency, local seo">

Does it still matter?

  • Google: doesn’t use it at all for web ranking.
  • Bing: doesn’t use it as a ranking signal, and has said that stuffing it can be treated as a sign of spam.
  • Competitors: can read it to see which keywords you target.

Some internal site search tools and a few smaller search engines may still read it, but for SEO you can leave it out. Put the effort into the title tag, meta description, headings and content instead.

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