Meta keywords

What are meta keywords?

Meta keywords are an HTML meta tag that was once a key part of search engine optimization. This tag allowed website owners to specify relevant keywords for their pages, hidden in the HTML code rather than visible to visitors. The original purpose was to help search engines understand what topics a page covered. Website owners would include a list of words and phrases in the page's header section using the syntax <meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">. Search engines would then use these keywords to determine when to show the page in search results.

Are meta keywords still relevant for SEO?

Meta keywords are no longer relevant for SEO on major search engines. Google, which handles the majority of search traffic, officially confirmed in 2009 that they don't use meta keywords in their ranking algorithms. Bing and Yahoo similarly ignore this tag for ranking purposes. Today, search engines rely on more sophisticated methods to understand page content, including natural language processing and user behavior signals. Including meta keywords won't help your rankings, and in some cases, might actually raise red flags if they appear manipulative.

What happened to meta keywords?

The downfall of meta keywords came from widespread abuse. As SEO became more competitive in the early 2000s, website owners began "keyword stuffing" – adding hundreds of keywords to their meta tags, including terms unrelated to their content and competitors' brand names. This made the meta keywords tag increasingly unreliable as an indicator of page content. Search engines responded by reducing and eventually eliminating the influence of meta keywords on rankings. By the late 2000s, major search engines had publicly announced they no longer considered this tag in their algorithms.

Should you still use meta keywords on your website?

Most SEO experts recommend against using meta keywords on your website. They provide no benefit for ranking in major search engines while taking up time that could be spent on effective optimization tactics. There are only two potential exceptions to consider: if you're targeting smaller, niche search engines that might still use meta keywords, or if you're using them for internal site search functionality. Otherwise, implementing meta keywords is simply unnecessary work that might even appear outdated to technically savvy visitors who examine your source code.

What are better alternatives to meta keywords?

Instead of meta keywords, focus on these more effective SEO elements:

Title tags and meta descriptions that accurately describe your content while incorporating relevant search terms naturally. These directly influence click-through rates from search results.

Quality content that thoroughly covers your topic and naturally includes relevant keywords and phrases. Modern search engines analyze your entire content to understand what questions it answers.

Structured data markup that helps search engines understand the context of your information, potentially earning rich results in search listings.

Internal linking that helps both users and search engines discover related content on your site while establishing topic relevance.

These approaches align with how modern search engines actually evaluate content, leading to more sustainable improvements in visibility than outdated tactics like meta keywords.