Should I delete Meta Keywords from a website?
-
Hi Guys,
I've been reading various posts on the Q&A section here at Moz about Meta keywords.
I understand that meta keywords are not relevant with Google and that Bing signals this as spam.
I'm optimising existing websites which already have meta keywords in the html coding.
My question is:
If I delete ALL meta keyword coding will this have any negative impact whatsoever?
Thanks Mozers
Jason
-
They have no shame when it comes to link spam LOL. You should know this by now. This person seems no different then the people that email blast cialis discounts.
-
What about comment spam on seven-year-old posts? The links are all nofollow, FYI.
-
HI all,
I was about to embark on a meta keyword application exercise but now will refrain from it. All this was very informative, I was wondering whether to add them as not.
I agree it will always be content over keyword any day, hands down.
Regards,
Kamran
-
-
Thanks Dean,
I try to apply the same individual responses on Social Media. People take the time to respond individually and that warrants a personalised response.
All too often this is a failing of businesses on Social Media.
Jason
-
Congratulations on your new position Jason.
Also nice to see that you have responded to everyone who made a comment.
-
Hi Dean,
Think content rather than keywords - spot on!
As I've only been in my job for 6 weeks, my fear is if I delete them it may have a negative impact on our search engine results.
So far deleting them is more likely than not.
I'll keep you informed of any impact this may have.
Thanks
Jason
-
Hi David,
So far I'm in favour of deleting them, but with your response I'm in a bit of a dilemma.
I agree with your premise that you should optimise for people and not search engines, also the point about not knowing how people reach your site.
The meta keywords is the last of my tasks as meta tags, title tags and other on page text has been fully optimised. However I am finding a direct correlation between meta keywords and search engine rankings. Our sites feature in the top 5 searches on Google but 30-40 on Yahoo and Bing. So after optimising all other areas of the websites, meta keywords seem to be the cause of this. So the sink is leaking somewhere.
I really appreciate your detailed response and will take some time ponder over my options.
Thanks
Jason
-
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your reply. With your advice and the majority of responses to this post it seems like deleting them might be my best option.
If I delete them and it has a negative effect I'll keep you all informed!
Thanks
Jason
-
Thanks for clarifying this Kevin.
Our websites ranks high (top 5) on Google but ranks around 30-40 on Yahoo and Bing so there does seem to be a direct correlation.
I think the very nature of meta keywords is stuffing, so I'm swaying on the side of deleting them altogether.
Thanks for your response.
Jason
-
Thanks Evan
-
Hi Mark,
I too analyse competitors websites in the same way, it helps me with SEO and copywriting.
This is one of the main reasons I want to delete them from our sites.
Thanks for your feedback.
Jason
-
Thanks Benjamin,
There certainly seems to be harm in leaving them when considering Bing. I've noticed that our websites all ranks within the top 5 searches on Google but Bing and Yahoo we don't fair so well.
I am hesitant to delete them as you rightfully point out, they may be important in the future.
Cheers
Jason
-
Thanks for your response Ruben.
There's a few differing opinions on this thread so I'll take your advice and balance my options. Unfortunately the link you kindly provided cannot be found
Thanks
Jason
-
I agree with Mark on this one. As long as they are not stuffed, it may not be that big of a deal, but I don't include them.
-
I also would suggest that you delete them as no search engine use them and as already suggested it gives your competitors a list of keywords that you are trying to optimise for.
Think content rather than a list of keywords
-
I am in favor of keeping them. One rule we live for is "Not optimizing only for Google, yahoo or any one specific platform"
If the keywords are direct and well chosen, they will not hurt you. If not, its more than likely there are some other areas of your site that could use improvements as well. You never know how people will be getting to your site, or by what means they will get there. Removing something that is well structured, even if it's only used by a select few platforms is not a good idea IMHO.
If they are stuffed, then yes, it would be a good idea to revise them, but not completely remove them. Is the keywords tag the most important factor? No, not by any means. i would take a hard look at your description and page titles before I would suggest worrying about keywords.
A quote someone once told me about SEO "If my sink is leaking, I fix the leak. I don't throw away the whole sink, or go buy a new one, unless the old one cannot be repaired."
-
The short answer is no - it will have no negative impact.
-
No problem deleting them. Google and Yahoo does not use it as a ranking factor. Also, if stuffed could impact your rankings on Bing who uses as a spam signal.
-
When I'm doing keyword research, one of the first things I do is go on competitor websites and see if they have the meta keyword tag. If they do, then it instantly gives me access to all the keywords that they're targeting and allows me to work on beating them. Deleting your meta keyword tag prevents your competitors from doing this to you.
-
I would keep them, i even still use them with sites I'm building now because even though one search engine says they don't use them maybe another will and who knows if and when they will be important again. In my opinion no harm no foul. I leave mine.
-
Hi Jason,
This thread is from a couple of years ago, but it still holds true: http://moz.com/community/q/meta-keywords-should-we-use-them-or-nothttp://moz.com/community/q/meta-keywords-should-we-use-them-or-not
Before you do anything, wait for a second, third, and, maybe even, fourth opinion, but deleting all your meta keywords should not change your rankings in google at all...and it might even help your rankings in Bing...but it certainly won't hurt you.
- Ruben
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Broad keyword use
It seems that the broad keyword use is not very accurate. I have 3 very similar keywords: Dive Florida, scuba diving in Florida, Florida scuba diving. Why does the program not recognise them as broad usage when assessing the page title? And if the program cannot understand broad usage terms, how confident can we be that the program can properly measure for keyword stuffing?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Zambezikid0 -
My compatitors destroy my website with huge spammy links!
Hi
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | amirooo.sh123
My competitors destroy my website with huge spam links! Its more than 400 high spam (80-100% spam score) unique domain, link to us sitewide!!! I disavow on search console. But its not enough! All pages ranks down and we lost everything we had....
What should we do now? If you can, please help me
Darookhaneonline.com Capture.jpg0 -
Targeted keywords in top half of the page or through out the page?
i have created a content, want to include target keywords but where do i place them for maxim seo benefit, i am asking this because i have heard looks doesn’t give much credit if the kws are at the end?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Sam09schulz0 -
My Brand new website shows 79% spam Score, what is the reason and how should I deal with this?
Hi, I have just launched my website 1 month before and I have used all paid images, Uniquely written contents, Everything is genuine for better SEO experience in the future. The actual problem is its showing spam by 79% in MOZ bar, I don't have a single link on my website also my content is unique, Images are unique. Why its showing so much spam on this brand new website? Can you please help me? I am very stressed due to this problem.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | rahat640 -
New Flurry of thousands of bad links from 3 Spammy websites. Disavow?
I also discovered that a website www.prlog.ru put 32 links to my website. It is a russian site. It has a 32% spam score. Is that high? I think I need to disavow. Another spammy website link has spam score of 16% with with several thousand links. I added one link to the site medexplorer.com 6 years ago and it was fine. Now it has thousands of links. Should I disavow all three?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Boodreaux0 -
Overall traffic increasing but specific short tailed keywords decreasing any ideas?
Something very strange has happened regarding my website traffic when making a comparison to the first six months of 2012 and then 2014. Anybody got any ideas? From my Google analytics from 1 January 2014 to 1 July in other words six months my total traffic on my website was 30,209. Not provided source ( what does this mean ? ) was very high at 23,141 but two of the my main short tail keywords I've targeted in the past "Whitby holiday cottages “only equal 254 and "Whitby cottages" was only 176. When I made a comparison with the same time period below in 2012 the website traffic this year as gone up greatly by almost 20000, but the two of my money short tail keywords as gone down greatly! If I compare the same time frame for 2012 the overall traffic was only 13,380. Not provided source was nowhere near as high at only 1836 which is also much less than above in 2014 but the short tail keywords I targeted "Whitby holiday cottages was almost 10 times higher at 2005 and "Whitby cottages “much higher at 613. I ran the questionnaire on http://www.mytrafficdropped.com/quiz/ regarding Panda and particularly Penguin and its association with back links. The article says that Penguin didn't hit the overall keywords, but only specific ones if they been targeted on the following dates the time points of April 24, 2012 and May 25, 2012 which are known Penguin rollout dates. So when I checked the two short tail keywords above for those two dates the figures did seem to drop from 10 hits a day to 5 but then went back up immediately to approximately 10 hits a day during the two-month period which suggested to me that I'd not been hit by Penguin on those dates. So when you look at the comparison the first six months of 2012 and then 2014 there is no doubt that money short tail keywords of dropped off dramatically for me but the overall website traffic has gone up dramatically. Some of the increase in traffic will be down to time and more articles/pages etc.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | WhitbyHolidayCottages
The two short tail keywords I mention above I know I've dropped in Google rankings I used to be position three page one and the site is now position 10 so I would assume that's why I've dropped in traffic for those phrases.
Has anybody got any idea what's happened? I can honestly say that I've not noticed it in bookings on the website business seems about the same overall.0 -
Content optimized for old keywords and G Updates
Hi, We've got some old content, about 50 pages worth in an Ecommerce site, that is optimized for keywords that aren't the subject of the page - these keywords occur about 8 times (2 keywords per page) in the old content. We are going through these 50 pages and changing the title, H1, and meta description tag to match the exact subject of the page - so that we will increase in rankings again - the updates have been lowering our rankings. Do we need to completely rewrite the content for these 50 pages, or can we just sprinkle it with any needed additions of the one keyword that is the subject of the page? The reason I'm asking is that our rankings keep dropping and these 50 pages seem to be part of the problem. We're in the process of updating these 50 pages Thanks.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
From keyword rankings to ......... what KPI?
Hi Folks, I have a customer whos keyword rankings for Google have fluctuated rather widly over the past two months which has caused some consternation on their part dispite our reassurance. This is caused in large part due to their lack of understanding of SEO, little effort on their part in implementing changes for SEO and what I belive to be unrealistic expectations (having done no SEO work on their site wanting to see first page ranking for competitive keywords like 'heart attack' within 4-8 weeks). At the moment we are using just keyword rankings as a KPI and I wish to reframe them by using additional or alternative KPIs so that as rankings fluctuate with future Google seach algorithm tweaks and changes that the customer isn't solely focused on them. I am still in the process of formulating this list but so far I have decided to include the KPIs listed below. Month-on-Month / Quarter-On-Quarter Organic search traffic volume (should be rising) Top landing pages excluding branding keywords and homepage (should corelate to content created to target specific keywords) Number of landing pages on the client site that rank List of landing pages and bounce rates (are the 'gateway pages' holding visitors due to meeting their search requirements?) Average number of keywords per landing page (possibly integrated with the landig page reports above as a dimension to demonstrate correlation of # of keywords to landing pages) Some visibility on top keyword search terms (provided from Adwords where possible and GWT also) Top organic keywords (from adwords and GWT) Conversions from organic search (will vary from client to client for their own needs but will primarily be implemented using Google Tag Manager event tracking for things like enquiry forms etc) Referral traffic Delta/Ranking trends over large set of datapoints (will depend on how often you poll/track rankings but for example if you track rankings weekly then assess the trend of the rankings over 3-6months to smooth out the fluctuations) Your thoughts and feedback on this would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Dave
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | icanseeu1