When in comes to achieving top search engine rankings how large of a role do keyword tags actually play? This is a simple question with no easy answer. Not only does the answer vary depending on which search engine a marketer is targeting, but it also depends upon the changing valuations search engines place on these tags.
At one point in time the keywords tag had an impact on a web site’s position within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). Now the keywords tag has little impact on where a site will appear in the search results. When search engine first started determining the relevancy of a site they placed a larger emphasis on these tags.
Soon every webmaster used these them and oftentimes overused these tags and therefore the search engine placed less importance on them. After all, not every site that adds “SEO Company” into their keywords tag can have a top 10 ranking within the SERPS for the phrase “SEO Company”.
Still there is some value associated with this tag. Type the following into Google, Yahoo, and MSN only without the quotations, “dsrurejjnr“. This is a made up phrase that appears only in the keyword description tags of Real Good Furniture (take a look at the website’s source code). [note, some geocities spammy pages are listing it too]
Now look at the SERPS and notice that only in Yahoo does the site appear number one. It is not even listed on Google or MSN. The takeaway is that while the importance of this tag is minimal, Yahoo still gives it some weight.
Now this test is partially flawed since this information has appeared within the site’s source code for some time now. As one might notice when following the instructions above there are websites that have linked to Real Good Furniture, which have included the made up words on their page.
Therefore links pointing to the site now have some association with the fictitious keyword.
My suggestion is to try this test with your own website. Make up a keywords phrase and add it as the last keyword with the keywords tag of the source code. Wait a couple weeks and then do a search on the major three search engines. Now you will know the true importance the keywords tag plays in SEO.
- Additional Resource: Meta Keywords Tag 101
Brent Yorzinski is the owner of the SEO Company Agilis Marketing. Despite his young age and even younger appearance he has successfully helped hundreds of companies achieve top search rankings on Google, Yahoo, and the other major search engines.
Vote for this post : 2
or Buzz it at Yahoo :
Comments
15 responses so far ↓
Mark Pilatowski on Nov 26, 2007 at 1:35 pm
You make a good point. I tend to use keyword tags to include misspellings of the relevant keywords for each page. And I have seen some of the same results. They really don’t show up in Google or MSN but Yahoo seems to rank them pretty well, first page in most cases and many time at the top.
Gyutae Park on Nov 26, 2007 at 1:54 pm
The keywords tag is dead and I really wouldn’t bother using it.
ClockTower on Nov 27, 2007 at 2:14 am
Good point, and good job backing up your point with a simple test!
Shockley on Nov 27, 2007 at 7:43 am
I believe that the effect of the keyword meta tag also relies on other factors.
For example, if anchor text linking to your site has those keywords in it, and if those keywords are also in your site’s content, then including them in the meta tag would have more of an influence.
Wayne Smallman on Nov 27, 2007 at 8:22 am
For those ‘bloggers amongst you, here’s a thought for the day: how come tag clouds aren’t classed as keyword stuffing?
Website Promotion Service on Nov 27, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Seriously speaking, I agree that tweaking the tags can make slight difference in your SERP.
But it is the link popularity factor that matters. It is no longer how well a site can be better optimize but how well its inbound link can be maximize. Sad but true.
Web Search on Nov 27, 2007 at 9:46 pm
This is certainly a valid way to check if there is _any_ effect from keyword tag terms, but it’s still such a small impact and the uniqueness of this term is the only way that it will rank. This tag is really not worth the effort for the main search engines, but it’s sensible to include something within the keywords tag, because maybe one day…!
Josh on Nov 27, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I think this is a simple yet brilliant way to test whether keywords are still a factor in a sites rank. I will continue to use keywords even though some don’t think it is necessary. I don’t see how it could hurt my site in any way, only benefit it with the search engines that still use it. Something I found interesting was this page does not have any keywords in a meta tag. :-)
BenPotter on Nov 28, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Seems like a lot of effort for a factor which has very little weighting on the major engines. As a matter of course, we incorporate keywords into the Keyword tag but are considering removing them because it gives away marketing intelligence as to the specific keywords being targeted.
Jaan Kanellis on Nov 28, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I will continue to ignore keyword tags all together as they are more of pain in the ass than anything. The only thing they are good for is internal search relevance.
Mike on Dec 12, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Gone are the days where keywords would help massively in SERPs.
I think it helps SEs to gain a better idea of what your page is about, rather than whats actually on it and what it should rank for.
SEO Web Design on Jan 19, 2008 at 10:41 am
We haven’t been placing much effort on keyword tags over the last few years, however we still place some keywords in the tags because there may be other search engines out there that still uses meta keywords tag.
Maxs - Self Help Improvement on Feb 17, 2008 at 11:57 am
Something I found interesting was this page does not have any keywords in a meta tag.
Tom Wallace on Apr 26, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Great advice here Brent. With all the conflicting information about meta-tags to be found out on the net these days, it’s hard to know exactly what is true.
Your tip to actually test it out, is a great one. I plan on trying it out myself!
Alan Jewitt on Sep 25, 2008 at 6:11 am
Purely by accident I completely omitted the keywords and description tags from my daughter’s site. She ranks top in google UK for a couple of key phrases, (try “actor musician”) purely because they are present in the page title and content.
Leave a Comment