A form of HTML meta tag is meta keywords. Meta keywords are used in meta tags to supply search engines with information about the content of your web page. They’re hidden in the HTML source code of a website and aren’t visible to visitors.
For the last 10 years, Google hasn’t used the meta keywords tag to help rank web pages. It’s crucial to realize that SEO isn’t just about Google.
We’ll go through the most important SEO meta data that search engines check for and that All in One SEO can help you manage.
What are meta keywords?
Meta keywords are a form of metadata tag that reflects the topic of your material. Most people are familiar with tags thanks to Twitter and other social media platforms. They’re called “metadata” tags because they contain information about the information on your page.
Meta keywords, unlike primary keywords, do not appear in the content of a web page. They clearly do not intend to target readers or even humanity.
They exist exclusively to be read by computers, i.e. search engines and are only visible in the code (HTML) of a webpage. The meta keywords you use tell the search engine how to rank your website based on the keywords you use. This is how they might appear:
If you right-click anywhere on a webpage and select “see source code” you’ll find this information. In a nutshell, meta keywords are a collection of keywords that you provide in the code of your website to inform search engines about the topic of your content.
Is it necessary to use meta keywords?
The SEO Keywords (also known as Meta Keywords) that appear in the source code of your website are as follows:
<meta name="keywords" itemprop="keywords" content="content1, content2, content3, content4" />Search engines no longer employ meta keywords, therefore they have no importance in modern SEO. However, it is still relevant in some search engines, such as Yandex.
Then why should we use meta keywords?
It’s utilized for some of the site’s internal searches. Although most common CMSs do not use the meta keywords element for internal site searches, some internal search systems, such as SOLR, Algolia, and Elasticsearch-based systems, do. If any of these are used to fuel your internal search, the keywords meta tag may be required.
Other use cases for meta keywords
You’ve undoubtedly figured out by now that most people don’t need to utilize the keywords meta tag, but there are a few uses for it.
Make a tagging system for yourself.
Numerous CMSs and website builders, as well as many free WordPress SEO plugins, make it simple to add meta keywords to pages. This makes ‘repurposing’ the tag for use in an internal keyword tagging system a breeze. Simply use the tag as your page’s target keyword.
For example, if the goal term for our page was “SEO tips” it would look like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="importance of meta keywords"/>If you do this on every page, it will be simple to see if you’ve previously targeted a keyword. Simply use an auditing tool like Ahrefs’ Site Audit to crawl your site, then use Page Explorer to check for pages that have your term in the meta keywords element.
There are three reasons why this is beneficial:
- Assist in preventing keyword cannibalism. When a website targets the same keyword over many pages, this is known as keyword cannibalization. It can lead to a variety of problems, such as unpleasant pages outranking favorable pages.
- Work should not be done at the same time. If you work in enterprise SEO, you’ll likely find that numerous people and teams are working on comparable projects. Multiple teams targeting the same term can be avoided with an internal keyword tagging system.
- Look for ways to collaborate. If you see that one of your keywords isn’t performing well, you might want to engage with another team to improve and refresh your content.
Making Meta Keywords a Part of Your Content
The most important thing to remember whether you construct and organize your meta keywords by hand or using software is that the keywords you choose are relevant to the page in question.
Another often asked topic is how many meta keywords should I use. As a general rule, no more than 10 meta keywords should be used on a single page.
Aside from the obvious problems of quantity and relevancy, it’s a good idea to keep the following in mind while choosing keywords:
- Misspellings in Meta Tags: Including misspellings in your meta tags may indicate to search engines that your website is relevant to the (misspelled) search query without having to include the misspellings in your webpage copy, which is a best practice.
- Long-Tailed Keywords: Keyword variations and plurals, as well as longer and more specialized phrases known as long-tailed keywords, are all important to remember.
- Real Searches: When building lists of meta keywords, the real search terms that led readers to your page in the past can be your best friend. To locate those terms, look through your analytics or log files, and employ keyword tools to back up your data. What are the words that people naturally use to describe your company? And what words are your competitors using?
Meta Keywords and Google
Because Google is the world’s most popular search engine, and we know this because of how we live our lives. When we don’t know anything, we all say, “I’ll Google it.” It would be strange if we said things like, “Let’s Bing that” or “Wait, I’m going to Yahoo that.”
It’s probably better if I explain how Google still uses Meta Keywords.
Google is, in reality, extremely similar to other search engines like Yahoo and Bing. It doesn’t employ meta keywords as much as it used to. In summary, using them may be a waste of time, and your primary attention should be on the Title Tags and Meta descriptions, which are discussed further down.
Important Meta Tags
Other meta tags are important in the eyes of Google and other search engines. These meta tags are used by the majority of websites, and they can help yours achieve high ranks.
They will want to read more of your page if you can capture their interest with a meaningful and informative headline. Concentrate on the length of your title tag; don’t go overboard because Google only accepts a certain amount of characters. Make the most of it by writing a clear and concise title.
Description of Metadata
On search results pages, meta descriptions are found directly beneath title tags. They will be the second item that your viewers will notice. These descriptions serve as teasers for the rest of your content.
Make sure they’re engaging, and give a brief description of what your page contains in a phrase or two. The number of characters in meta descriptions is also limited. Make sure they’re not too short or too long; experts say 160 characters is the ideal length for meta descriptions.
Tags in the title
The titles that display on search results pages are title tags; this is the section where researchers can click to navigate to a certain website. These are significant since they express exactly what your page contains. When a Google user searches for something, the first thing they see is the title tag.
Instead of using meta keywords, concentrate on content length.
It’s entirely up to you whether or not you want to use meta keywords. If you choose not to, rest assured that you will not be penalized in any way. If you decide to utilize them, the most important thing to keep in mind is that your keywords should not be misleading to the search engine.
In addition, devote extra attention to your website’s content or other more vital SEO strategies. Other meta tags, including title tags and meta descriptions, serve as a window into your website. They will have an impact on your SEO rankings as well as the number of people who see your website. Ensure that your window is attractive and inviting to researchers. Finally, rather than focusing on meta keywords, make content your primary priority and work on improving it.
Are Meta Tags and YouTube Video Tags the same thing?
YouTube is one place where meta keywords are still widely used.
When you post a video to YouTube, you have the option of including multiple “Video tags.” These aid in the YouTube algorithm’s ranking of your videos. The only difference between YouTube and search engines is that with different Google Extensions, it is much easier to see if your tags are truly working. This is similar to how Search Engines employed Meta Tags to rank your websites and content.
YouTube has not updated its algorithm to remove the importance of keywords. This is mainly due to the significant impact this modification would have on the entire platform. It would also make it much more difficult for your films to rank, as YouTube does not support as many SEO strategies.
This is due to the fact that it is a video rather than static content. There is content, headings, titles, descriptions, keywords, readability, images, and links in static material, but only titles, descriptions, and keywords are allowed on YouTube.
People can readily take advantage of this feature here. If a particular issue is currently trendy and performing well. Including these keywords in your video’s title can help it rank higher. YouTube is attempting to assist, but it is quite difficult.
Discussion
Meta keywords, as previously indicated, are typically a waste of time. Furthermore, we propose that you concentrate more on the tags and target keywords for your content.
The following is how you should go about doing it:
A distinct primary target keyword should be used on each page of your website. This should be used to inform both the content of the article and all of the meta tags associated with it.
It’s critical, though, to prevent keyword stuffing while doing so. Instead, target keywords should be used naturally and descriptively in your body copy and meta tags.
