What is a Meta Keyword and How to Use It?
Meta keywords are a key ranking factor in organic rankings that are integral in organic SEO. It’s difficult to find a website without metadata. Thankfully, SEO methods have improved dramatically. It is not needed anymore to add keywords to SEO metadata tags. Look at your Keyword Meta Tags to see serious issues influencing indexability.
What are meta keywords and how to use them? Meta keywords are coding HTML metatags that are used by search engines to improve website performance. Meta keywords are meta tags that help search engines understand the content of a page. Meta keywords may be more common than their sister meta tags like meta description and meta title. It defines what different types of metadata are about in an HTML document. These meta tags can be found in the source pages of a website, which is what search engine crawlers can to determine what a page is about.
Are Meta Keywords Still Relevant in 2022?
Why is a meta keyword useless for most searches and is it necessary for SEO for websites? What’s a keyword, and is that still a useful search term? According to google analytics, meta keywords don’t count as much as ranking factors. Meta words have a purpose, however. Some CMSs still utilize Meta Keywords when analyzing content to give the user the best results possible. Larger companies may even use Meta keywords as tag internals of their website.
The history of Meta Keywords
Previously Google included the requirement to add meta keywords elements to HTML pages for search engine optimization. The elements contained a list of keywords, usually separated by a comma. These keywords are some you have probably considered relevant to the content on your pages and you want your page to rank accordingly.
SEO Strategies Have Changed
People relatively look for ease in everything they do. Of course, if you’re able to do something in lesser time with minimum effort then why wouldn’t you? Because tag access is simple, it’s a very good goal. Therefore, unrecognized web owners realized keyword meta could be easily exploited. Many online marketers abuse the meta tags by adding irrelevant keywords or spam in them. However, some search engines have stopped using keyword metadata for searches.
Do You Still Need to Use Meta Keywords?
Google has not utilized the Meta keyword in search rankings for over 10 years. Matt Cutts, the Google former web spam chief, released a 2009 video saying that in the year 2020 most SEO specialists will no longer use meta tags. The key to SEO is to remember that there are several different reasons for using meta tags for search engine optimization.
It May Still be Used by Yandex
Yandex is Russia’s most popular search engine and is about half the market size of Google. They said meta-search terms can help determine relevance. Do meta keywords have an impact on Yandex search performance? Yes. But as this website only existed until late 2018 the details may remain incorrect. It’s likely an underweight factor.
Bing
In 2014, Bing announced that meta keywords tags are no longer relevant to SEO. The news came to light when the Bing Evangelistic Director tweeted the same statement in 2020. However, in 2011, the company suggested using the site for a spam signal to detect low-quality pages. It’s unclear what’s going on but it certainly isn’t a ranking factor.
Naver
According to statistics, the website handles 74.3% of the total internet searches in Seoul. And although we could not find a specific explanation of their use of meta keywords, they never mention any keywords in their detailed document. We could assume this factor is either not used or has an extremely low-weight factor.
It’s Used for Some Internal Site Searches
Most CMSs do not use meta keyword tags in internal website searches, but some internal search engines can. If you have internal searches, you should probably use the keyword meta tags.
Does Google Use Meta Keywords?
In 2009, Google announced it had never considered meta keywords for ranking purposes. The top search engine in the world discovered that metatags were frequently misused, therefore did not consider keywords metatags as ranking factors. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently, we see no need to change that policy. Is Google using meta keywords for ranking websites on search engines? Yes.
Other Use Cases For Meta Keywords
Probably you have realized by now that most individuals aren’t required to use metatags for their keywords and you could use them for many different purposes.
Create an Internal Tagging System
Often a WordPress developer can create a page easily by adding meta keywords or using the plugins for WordPress. This allows for ‘repurposed’ tags in a tagged internal search engine. Just put the tag in the list of keywords for a webpage. If the website’s search term was “SEO Tips” this will appear as follows: When we make a search query we see whether we targeted keywords at any given time or not.
Find ‘Seed’ Keywords From Competitors
Bill Slawski said that nearly 33% of the population still uses the keyword meta tags on Twitter. These people will most likely be competitors so they can find seed keywords in search engine optimization.
Best Focus Keywords and Where to Place Them?
The focus keywords are the query for which your page will be ranked in search engines. Focus keywords must show some characteristics.
Meta description
A meta tag will be included on the page code. The maximum number is 140 characters. You should include the keywords in the description of the meta tag. Use an appropriate keyword or a relevant keyword variant.
Where do You Place Focus Keywords?
Google does not disclose where a keyword should be placed, but it has some rules for what keywords should be inserted for search. This helps search engines understand what you are looking for in the search results.
Link with Anchor Text or Variation
When using keyword phrases in your body it is important not to get too far as the word is likely overused. You can use keywords and links to these in your anchor text.
FAQs
Here are some commonly asked questions about meta keywords:
Why is Metadata Keywords Arent Used Anymore?
In September 2009, search engines saw meta tags die. The SEO expert said Google doesn’t include a keyword meta tag in web rankings. Google followed suit in the following years. Usually, keyword tags are considered untrustworthy signals due to their abuse.
Generally, you do not have to use that tag anymore for some of the search phrases. It is recommended for writing long content, answering questions, hitting longtail keywords, and writing voice searches for your site.
What is a Meta Tag and How Does it Work?
Meta tags describe the contents of a website, i.e. the text is not displayed on the webpage itself. Meta tags are small content descriptions that help to show search engines the purpose of a site’s content.
What are Meta Tags and Why are It Used?
Metatags are the initial impressions of your website by searchers. A good meta description will attract visitors to your website. They help ensure that search engines know how to display your web pages to search engines.
Conclusion
Regardless of the motivations behind the overuse and misuse, Google began to take less and less notice of the Meta keyword tag. The tag was no longer providing meaningful ranking data, and Google, along with other search engines, had refined their algorithms to a point where they could interpret the essence of a page of content without using the keyword tag as a crutch. Should We Use the Meta Keyword Tag on Our Website? Based on this data, the meta keywords tag could be useful for some search engines, but perhaps not for the larger companies, many of us use. In other places meta keywords are being used if you look through the HTML source code on a page at Amazon, for instance, you may see a meta keywords element in use.
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