Google does not use the keywords meta tag

[Eric Barnes +]

Excerpt from Google:

Recently we received some questions about how Google uses (or more accurately, doesn't use) the "keywords" meta tag in ranking web search results. Suppose you have two website owners, Alice and Bob. Alice runs a company called AliceCo and Bob runs BobCo. One day while looking at Bob's site, Alice notices that Bob has copied some of the words that she uses in her "keywords" meta tag. Even more interesting, Bob has added the words "AliceCo" to his "keywords" meta tag. Should Alice be concerned?

At least for Google's web search results currently (September 2009), the answer is no. Google doesn't use the "keywords" meta tag in our web search ranking. This video explains more, or see the questions below.

Here is the link for more information:
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking

[seymourjames +]

Quite correct Eric.

Google is now so advanced with its algorithms they judge sites by a combination of unique content of quality and what others think of that content (and these referrers also have to be sites regarded as being relevant and hold unique content of quality too). The days of spamming them or tricking them have long gone. There is no secret to search engine optimisation - its called hard work developing

CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT

If your site contains good content which is relevant to the searches being made then your site will eventually succeed. More so if other sites of quality think highly enough of you and link to you from pages which are again RELEVANT.

There was never a free lunch.

To help people know a little bit more about SEO I put a really basic sticky up. http://www.68classifieds.com/forums/...imization.html . I would also recommend a book which is well known SEO Book.com ~ SEO Training Made Easy and the definitive advice Webmaster guidelines - Webmasters/Site owners Help

[SkGold +]

I am not completely agreed with Seymourjames. Content is important but it is not a main factor.
SEO is still � LINKS, LINKS, LINKS, and again LINKS, then maybe CONTENT + many others factors. Website age is very important for example.

Regarding Meta Tags:
Google was not using the keywords meta tag for years already, however some other engines was using them. Not anymore. Currently keywords meta became 99.9% useless.

Only 2 meta tags still useful:
1. Title � still one of the most important onsite SEO factors.
2. Description � not that important for ranking, however could be very helpful for conversions.

[seymourjames +]

Well we can agree to disagree then.

No - content is king and it has been like that for quite a while now. Ever since search engines worked out ways to process content and rank it. You have 'good' content and even with a few links from other relevant or authoritative sites you will do much better than a site with poor or duplicate content and lots of links. Read Matt Cutts, read Google Webmaster guidelines, read from people with highly ranked sites or just use common sense. Read vested interests on the other hand and of course they will tell you that you need links from so called high Page Ranked sites, etc. Why is that? Its because writing good content is difficult, it takes time and money. Especially if it is unique as well. Quality sites don't arrive over night.

So what is the aim of the search engines? It is to return (offer) the most relevant content to the search being made. Now those who think they can offer links from lots of sites and somehow they will push sites skywards are conning people. Witness the explosion of companies offering just that - my spam box fills up everyday with link offers. I think the search engines worked that one out a long time ago. A modest number of good links which arrive over a period of time is much more normal and statistically likely. The search engines looks for statistical normality too. You put 100 links to your site from a discord bunch of sites in a day and watch what happens to your rankings if you already have a reasonable position. Think about it. You just told the search engines you are a cheat.

External links are important, no doubt about it but companies that just promote link building are wasting people's money. Those asking for reciprocal links are in most cases wasting your time. In addition, the idea that you have a few links pointing out of your site to others will harm your rankings is again rubbish. People who build sites with thousands of inward links and a couple of outward links will think they are being clever. NO - unless they have especially great content to the point they could be considered an authority, they will just be seen as trying to cheat again. It would not be normal to have a website where there were only inward links. It is not the ethos of the net for a start. Sure, you can find counter examples but this is what gets me. Why not make a comparison between top ranking sites which do offer great content and those that don't. No - the marketing will just show you poor quality sites with good rankings and when they drop as they will, guess what, they change them for another set of poor quality sites.

So some specifics about links and content:

1. Get links slowly over a period of time. Make sure they contain title tags which are again relevant to the pages they are pointing at and as importantly make sure those links are placed in content which has context. A link from a page with 500 discord links on it is not going to do you any good. Don't just get links to your home page and make sure the text in the title tag of those links vary around your subject. 500 inward links with the same term just tells a search engine that you are spamming them. Don't be afraid to link to others when relevant to do so. Use common sense.

2. Content - avoid duplicate content. Make your content for humans. Now that is more difficult for classifieds site owners. Many sites will suffer from the cut and paste problem = the same advert which has been posted to several classifieds sites. Now if you are considered to be the first by a search engine that is perhaps fine (you are the definitive source) but if you are not the page worth will mean much less. So what can you do about it. Well if your site is full of duplicate content I would "rel=nofollow" my internal links to those pages (exclude them through meta tags robots.txt aswell). You have been honest. What I would then focus on is extra pages of great content to compensate. Another strategy to follow is to make sure that your view listings are different. Find ways to encourage people to change their adverts (stop the cut and paste from one classifieds site to another). Add fresh new and unique content to their pages.

[SkGold +]

What is Search Engine?

I believe that we all know that SE is a MATHEMATICAL ALGORITHM - it is not a human. Now let’s think and find the answer on how mathematical algorithm can understand that your site has a good content. I think the answer is obvious. There is still only one way and this way is…

There are many factors and techniques for the proper SEO. The best way is to combine all factors and techniques together. IMO content is in the top five but is not a first. Content is important but it is not a king. Links are King, Queen and so on… Good content is only the way (only one way) to get links.

I don’t really want to go into the long discussion. I simply don’t have a time for it. I just told my opinion. And sorry if it is hurt your feelings - I didn’t mean it.

[Mike-N-Tosh +]

Just to add my two pence worth to this thread.

First off, the thread was started simply to point out the fact that Google doesn't use keywords. I'm no SEO expert by any means and don't claim to be, however I have been successful in not only my own sites, but several clients as well in getting good rankings.

Google doesn't use keywords and they say that themselves in their own documentation. Yahoo states that they do use keywords and in their webmaster tools specifically tell you to use and include them.

SEO in of itself is an ongoing evolving topic. People can argue till they are blue in the face on what works and what doesn't. What is King, Queen, Prince or Prime Minister? The truth of the matter is, what works for one site and/or what works for one search engine doesn't necessarily translate to another site and/or another search engine.

Content may or may not be KING, but regardless it is definitely very important. You could have all the links in the world pointing to your site from other highly reputable sites, but if you don't have good content and fresh content your rankings are going to fall, period. On the flip side, if you have good content and don't have any incoming links, chances are you still won't have good rankings. All of the things mentioned in these posts are important and they all tie together.

That, in my opinion is what counts. It's really a matter of finding a balance of all of these types of things as well as what your market is. Spending time and concentrating on just one "KING" of SEO is an exercise in futility.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[SkGold +]

Originally Posted by Mike-N-Tosh

You could have all the links in the world pointing to your site from other highly reputable sites...

You will get very good ranking. This is the target of SEO.

Originally Posted by Mike-N-Tosh

...but if you don't have good content and fresh content your rankings are going to fall, period.

Once again - SE is a mathematical algorithm. So… Why is ranking going to fall??? Unless you are manually force SE's algorithm to ignore all these links.

[Mike-N-Tosh +]

Originally Posted by SkGold

Once again - SE is a mathematical algorithm. So� Why is ranking going to fall??? Unless you are manually force SE's algorithm to ignore all these links.

I don't want to argue with you or have any conflict with you, Serge, but simply stating SE is a mathematical algorithm means that it can't take your content into consideration is contradictory in of itself. How do you think artificial intelligence works? Why in coding do you think that they call it "logic"??? Do you honestly believe that the algorithms do not know that your content hasn't changed? Of course it knows, just like it knows that additional links to your site have changed, your keywords have changed or your description or title has changed. Why do you think Google keeps cached pages? Algorithms/math can do a lot more than just 1+1=2. I know you know that, I'm just using that equation to show my point.

So in a direct answer to your question, "Why is ranking going to fall???", because if your content doesn't change and remains static, the algorithm knows that and considers that in the ranking and that is part of the mathematical equation(s).

We will all be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

[SkGold +]

Originally Posted by Mike-N-Tosh

So in a direct answer to your question, "Why is ranking going to fall???", because if your content doesn't change and remains static, the algorithm knows that and considers that in the ranking and that is part of the mathematical equation(s).

Not exactly. If you just keep getting links to your static page the �frequently updated content� factor will be overruled by �links� factor and your site will never drop any ranking. I have many sites myself that I didn�t touch any content for years. Also there are thousands (maybe millions) of static sites/pages (pictures, flash intros and so on�) that have good positions in serps. This is another prove that links are more important than content.

Originally Posted by Mike-N-Tosh

I don't want to argue with you or have any conflict with you...

Believe me I don�t want to do this as well. Maybe my tone is a little bit aggressive but it just because the English is not my mother tongue and I apologise for this. I respect yours and David�s abilities for design and programming. I bought template from TemplateCodes myself before and probably will buy some more.

Believe me only 2-3 years ago I was shouting all over the Internet that �content is a king�. You can probably find my threads on v7n and other popular forums about this. But I changed my mind as soon as I start practicing SEO on professional level.

Originally Posted by Mike-N-Tosh

Do you honestly believe that the algorithms do not know that your content hasn't changed? Of course it knows, just like it knows that additional links to your site have changed, your keywords have changed or your description or title has changed. Why do you think Google keeps cached pages?

100% with you - of course it knows that something changed. But this is not my point. How algorithm could know that your content is good and useful??? � this is the main question. For me the answer is obvious.

"SEO is links and links are SEO� - the most famous phrase from Aarron Wall - author of the SEObook that has been recommended by David in the second post of this thread.

At the end I would like to point that I believe in Good and Frequently Updated Content - it is the best way for building quality links.

[shanedawg +]

This has been a great discussion between David, Mike, and Sergey. And I agree with ALL of you!

It's no secret the Google's SE algorithms are so advanced and secretive that none of us know with certainty how they rank pages. But we do know, from experience and what little information Google has given us, is that they want their users to have the best possible search engine experience possible. So that means that they want to provide the most relevant results possible to their users. That is why content is important.

But it is also why links are important. They consider a site with good quality, relevant incoming links to be relevant to the search because so many reputable webmasters thought highly enough of the site to link to it.

I don't beleive that one is any more important than the other over time. But as it has already been pointed out, in order to get good, quality links you must have good content.

I feel it is safe to say that to a new site, content is much more important than links because sites will not link to another site that has no value.

Once the site has plenty of good content, the hard part is over and other webmasters will more likely to provide the quality links.

So the bottom line is they both go hand in hand, but one (content) should precede the other (links).