Update on using meta keywords

Use of meta keywords for Google traffic died out somewhere in the late nineties when Google realized meta keywords were at times only being used by webmasters to get hits, with no regard for relevant content. The tactic is no longer useful for Google results. The company has stated they no longer look at meta keywords to determine a web page’s content. Google uses its own method of determining what a page is about, and may even ignore the meta description and instead create its own description.

So should you use meta keywords? While Google has said they ignore the meta data, other search engines may still use the data to determine the page content. Yahoo and Bind, as far as we know, have not yet come out and said they ignore the data. And, if you have a site that is flash-based or heavy on images, you may want to include meta keywords and description so the search bots can determine page content.

However, our advice is to not spend too much time on meta tag keywords, especially given the overwhelming search market share owned by Google.