Meta tag keywords with the same words in them.
-
I'm updating some older pages and was wondering about potential penalties from having keywords that start with the same phrase. It's a geographic area so there is the "full name" and the abbreviated name. I'd like to have keywords for both.
For example:
virginia beach, va beach, virginia beach attraction, virginia beach things to do, va beach attraction, va beach things to do, virginia beach dolphins tour, va beach dolphins tour
Is that spammy? I understand they don't have the same weight as they used to but I'd like to optimize for them anyway since I'm redoing some things.
Thanks in advance.
-
Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the time and effort each of you spent helping a newbie. I will stop using them completely.
-
Forgive me, I'm a little confused by your post title. To be clear, are you referring to <meta name="keywords" ...>which would contain a list of all of the keyword referenced within the page?</meta name="keywords" ...>
- If you are, you should know that Google drove a stake through the heart of that abomination years ago. Yahoo and Bing weren't paying much attention (if any) to these as of a few years ago, so this practice can be safely abandoned.
Meta Title and Meta Description are of value to users and a correctly titled page will give you some SEO benefit, so use these in accordance with these guidelines:
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/learn/seo/title-tag
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/learn/seo/meta-description
If you are simply referring to the keywords within the body of your page, I recommend treating your copy as though it were conversation with a prospective customer; if you keep endlessly repeating the same thing in slightly different ways they're going to ignore you at first and then, if you persist, actively avoid you. So what you need to say without trying to say the same thing a thousand different ways; it's a huge turn off for visitors and Google will not reward you for it. That's not to say you can't repeat the phrase a couple of times throughout the copy, with a few slight variations on a theme, but don't labour the point. Read your copy out loud - if you start to annoy yourself (or others) you know you've overdone it. Less is more.
And give Google credit; it's smart. There really is no need to endlessly feed it every variant going. Google have invested huge sums of money in getting smarter and semantic search (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101-semantic-search-care/119760/) is a big part of that. I'd drop VA altogether (apart from the odd mention in a page or two - if it justified it because it added clarity and stick with 'Virginia Beach', building the main thrust/theme the site (or section of the site) around that, with separate pages for each specific activity or article focus 'dolphin tour' etc. Google will work it out without the need for you to shout at them.
Keep the end user at the forefront of your thinking when you're building your site, answer their questions, scratch their itches, and you'll be rewarded.
Use your keywords appropriately not repetitively, regardless of the context.
Good luck!
Note to self: I must write quicker replies, two other people answered this while I was writing this!
-
Hello Stephen,
A few years ago Matt Cutts said that google does not take into acount the meta keywords tag.
Here the youtube video: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web rankingI have no information about being penalized for using that tag with keywords like that.
Honestly, very few sites uses them. And some SEOs consider that there is no risk other than your competitor knowing what your keywords are.Best Luck.
GR -
It's not that they don't have the same weight - they have no weight, Stephen. Don't waste your time on them.
(In fact, you'll just be making it even easier for your competition to grab lists of the keywords you're targeting.)
Paul
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
On Page Optimization, F on all keywords?
On our website we have all F's even though we have the targeted keyword in the title, url, meta desc, h1, body and some of the img alt's. They still show zero uses of the keyword. Are we missing something here or is this some kind of bug or glitch? Any help or advice is appreciated, Thanks. Keyword: 2015 Toyota Tundra Hilton Head Website: http://www.stokesbrowntoyotahiltonhead.com/2015-Toyota-Tundra-Hilton-Head-Serving-Savannah/
On-Page Optimization | | stokesautogroup0 -
How should a ALT TAG Be?
Hi All, Can a ALT Tag have special characters? Can i have my ALT Tag as Image-explained-with-what-it-is? Can i have - hyphens as this? Thanks I have a 2nd question I have 100's of videos which has a ALT tag as Tumbnail link to video How can i deal with them? Can i add the Video title as ALT Tag? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Nettv0 -
ALT tagging images with keyword. What is too much?
I was wondering about the best practices of ALT tags in images. Say if you have an eCommerce site and you're on a product page. This product page has 5 images of the same product (different images), should you give every image an Alt tag with the keyword for that page? Or, is that keyword stuffing, and it would actually be best practice be to provide alt tags on just one image?
On-Page Optimization | | John_Francis0 -
Keyword stuffing - is it true?
Hi, I use On-Page Report Card for this url (the web is in Bulgarian) : http://cholakovit.com My keyword is in Bulgarian - "уеб дизайн" (which means "web design". It shows me that my keywords is: " Total Keyword Usage for this Page = 5875 "I cannot find so many instances of this keyword. Only 13 uses for "уеб" and 10 for "дизайн" in the whole page code. Is there an error in the report?When I search the English version -http://cholakovit.com/enwhich is almost the same but translated in English of the page for the key phrase "web design" it shows only "Total Keyword Usage for this Page = 8"
On-Page Optimization | | vladokan0 -
Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization
Hi I'm a little bit confused about my on page report. I prepared 2 version of on page seo report for the same targeted keyword and the same URL, but one of the url with www. and the other without it. In the one that i entered the URL with www. the report came with warning about the "Avoid Keyword Self-Cannibalization" we suggest staying away from linking internally to another page with the target keyword(s) as the exact anchor text. As I see on my webpage there is no anchor text at all pointing to another internal page using the targeted keyword. I'm sure that I didn't use my targeted keyword with any link . Thanks in advance for anyone If can help or explain what is that ? If I have to write the URL and the keyword no problem for me. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | seomoz591 -
3 keywords optomize for home page. Should I create page with thoses keywords or leave it like this?
My online store home page, Furnace Filters Canada has 3 keywords with good ranking in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters canada'' rank #1 position in google.ca keywords: ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter'' are on 5 or 6th position of page 1 in google.ca Those keywords are bringing most of the traffic to our site. To achieve this ranking, I had to use the On-Page Keyword Optimization, tool from seoMoz Questions: It is possible for me to create a page with the URL: https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filters or https://www.furnacefilterscanada.com/Furnace-Filter Can this improve my ranking with keywords like, ''furnace filters'' and ''furnace filter''? Is this a waist of time? If I decide to create a new page for optimization with, do I have to create one for singular and another one for plural? Creating a new page also mean removing, '' Furnace Filter'' in the home page title, until the new pages are index, I'm afraid to loss that 5th position in Google. Should I leave the home page title like it is now, '' Furnace Filter - Furnace Filters Canada - Online Shopping Store NOTE: we only do business in Canada, that is why Google.ca is more important to us Thank you, Jean Nichols
On-Page Optimization | | BigBlaze2050 -
Meta Description Tags and Rankings
Hi there, I have a lot of pages set up on my site but most have no content. If I add the correct meta description tags to those pages, will that help rank for the root domain? I am slowly getting the content added for each page but wanted to see if I could boost rankings in the meantime. http://www.petmedicalcenter.com Example: most of pages under "Services" are blank. Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | PMC-3120870 -
SERP Rankings for Certain Keywords
For some of our keywords, we rank on page one in google, but the page is an individual product and not the catelgory page? Any idea why this is happening? Thanks for your Help!
On-Page Optimization | | MRabidoux0