I was working on a website for a client last week and she sent me a list of ‘meta keywords’ she wanted me to use for the site. She had read in a book from 2006 that meta keywords were the way that google picks up your site. I tried to explain that google no longer uses the meta keywords for main web searches. Here it is direct from google:
Google doesn’t use keyword meta keywords anymore (you tube)
Now that doesn’t mean Bing and Yahoo won’t find the keywords useful and, while I don’t personally focus much on these anymore with so many other tools for solid SEO, here are a few reasons to determine if meta keywords are useful for your business.
1) Google is huge AND not the only search engine. Like I said, bing, yahoo and others haven’t condemned keywords the same way (ok condemned is a harsh term but that is what it feels like to those of us used to using them). So you may still get traction from using them well.
2) Social media, PPC and bots still may use them for some leverage.
3) To help you with online marketing planning. Getting your list of solid keywords to then use in your planning for your content in your site and your marketing materials is one reason I still set up my list of meta keywords. This one actually may be the most valuable for me.
So hope that helps you in understanding why some say meta keywords times has past and those of us who have done design since the inception of the internet say, mmm, maybe there is still some use, though meta keywords definitely don’t have the impact they used to.
