Big SEO Mistake #2: Thinking the Keyword Tag is Important

The SEO world is abuzz with Google’s confirmation that it does NOT use the keywords in the meta keyword tag when determining how a site ranks in the search engine.

In its Google Webmaster Blog, Google states, “Google doesn’t use the ‘keywords’ meta tag in our web search rankings.”

For those of you who don’t know, the meta keyword tag is found in your HTML source code. To find it, open your Web browser and click “View” and then “Source.” This will open a new page where you can see the HTML code. As an example, I’ve shown Yahoo’s! Title and meta tags below:

I’m glad Google repeated their stance about the keyword tag again — because quite frankly, I’m still amazed at the number of people who think that the keyword tag is important.

One prospect called me a few months ago, for example, asking about my SEO services. When I gave him a quote, he choked due to sticker shock and said he had to “get back to me” (re: find a cheaper alternative).

He called me a few weeks later to exclaim, “My site’s optimized! I found someone to do it for me.”

I had to laugh because the SEO “expert” had simply put keywords in the keyword meta tag.

I’ve had other companies say, “We want to rank for this keyword,” and when I say, “Well, you need content to support that keyword” (as in a new page or pages plus links), I usually hear, “Can’t you just put keywords in the keyword tag?”

Short answer: No.

So people, listen up. Google does not and never did look at the keywords in the keyword tag. Period. If you don’t want to listen to me, do pay attention to Google’s Matt Cutts.