What Are Meta Keywords?
Meta keywords are an HTML meta tag that provides keyword data to help search engine crawlers understand what the main topics are for the web page. This meta tag is no longer used by major search engines.
The meta keywords tag is placed in the <head> section of the HTML code and looks like this example:
<meta name=“keywords” content=“dog toys, best dog toys, dog toy reviews”>In 2009, Google’s search engine stopped using the meta keywords tag for web page indexing and rankings because it quickly became an area where someone could stuff irrelevant keywords for on-site search engine optimization (SEO) without visitors ever seeing those terms and phrases. In 2014, Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager for Bing, announced that its search engine also stopped crawling the meta keywords data.
Some minor search engines do still use meta keyword tags to identify the core topics for the web page; however, the major search engines do not use this HTML metadata information for indexing or ranking purposes.
Visit the SEO Glossary
Go to the SEO Glossary to find more terms and definitions that relate to the field of search engine optimization.
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
