Do you spend a lot of time researching words and phrases to include in your website’s keyword meta tag? If so, you may want to put a brake on your efforts. At least, if you only care about optimizing your website for Google.
In a video released earlier this week, the popular search engine said it does not use the keyword meta tag for ranking purposes. Period. End of story.
Once upon a time, using the keyword meta tag was a great way to insure search engines would find your site. But then people started loading up the keyword meta tags with words – related or unrelated to the site’s content – just to get noticed. The repetition of words in the meta tag is probably why Google doesn’t focus on it anymore. The search engine is more concerned with the actual content on your site and how relevant it is to your target audience.
Just because Google isn’t focusing on the keyword meta tag doesn’t mean you should ignore other meta tags. Google still pays attention to the description meta tag. This is a great place for you to use keywords to describe what a particular web page is about, and include a call to action.
You don’t have to ignore the keywords meta tag altogether. You can still put some keywords and phrases here because other search engines like Yahoo still use it. But it’s more important to have two or three keywords/phrases per web page, and write content in a way that it engages your reader and encourages them to move through your site and take action. That way you can be sure Google and your potential customers will take notice.
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