The digital age is a fast-paced era to be in, and so are the advances to be gained from it. One of which is search engine optimisation (SEO), which aims to get websites higher in search results. While SEO practices evolve with time, some are thrown into oblivion, and one of them is the use of meta keywords.
Meta keywords, also known as meta tags, used to be a useful element in SEO that allows you to indicate which keyword you’d like a search engine to rank you for. Such a tag is invisible to visitors and is only intended for the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Despite its usefulness in the past, it has since lost its sparkle as search althorigm advancements took place. There was a time when this SEO element has been abused as a spamming technique to rank high in the search results despite not being relevant to the user’s query. But those “easy pass” days are over.
Why We Don’t Use Meta Keywords Anymore
Today, the use of meta keywords in white hat SEO is practically obsolete. It no longer helps in your quest to have a high traffic from search engine ranking, which is why we don’t use them anymore in our SEO services.
Here are two main reasons why we don’t bother investing time in creating meta keywords.
- Google Stopped Looking at Meta Keywords
In 2009, Google’s software engineer Matt Cutts mentioned that they don’t use meta tags anymore in ranking search results. They found a way to prevent it from being used to manipulate rank before, thus they threw it out the window altogether. They focus more on the meta descriptions (combined with a number of other factors) instead, which is more or less representative of what a page or site is about. - Keep Competitors on Their Toes
In a Q and A forum, more than one person said that the use of meta keywords simply gives your competition an idea of what keyword you are aiming for. This makes it easier for them to optimise their page or site against yours, and the fact that most search engines don’t use them anymore to rank makes the meta tag useless.
What You Should Focus on Instead
Instead of thinking about meta keywords, you should work on other elements of SEO to make your site or page rank better. Some of them would be keyword research, link building, creating quality content, and a lot more. In this regard, we can help you with up-to-date practices that will actually help you land on the first page of the SERPs.