Back in May 2009 I created a post regarding Google Meta Keywords Tag, Do They Really Matter in which I provided information from the Google Webmaster docs showing no specific details to Google using the Meta Keyword Tag in its ranking considerations.

Well, now Google has officially stated Google Does Not Use The Keywords Meta Tag In Web Ranking

According to Google:

About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called “off-page” factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag

It’s possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it’s unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy.

Does this mean you should not include the meta keywords tag? Absolutely not!!! Google is not the only search engine available.

I have had a few intense conversations (for a lack of better words) with clients regarding the keyword tags. For some reason clients (mine at least) have a tendency to focus on what their competition is doing and not focus on facts in terms of keyword tags. Meaning that if a client is seo savvy enough they are in tune to these types of elements. The issue is that they always pull out the “if my competition is doing so, so should I” card.

Well, I hate that sentence. Why? Who says the competition is performing seo properly? Who says the competition is targeting the most relevant terms? Just because the competition is ranking well on terms that are found in the meta keyword tag does not mean they are converting on that term. Ranking number one on a keyword is a HORRIBLE way to gauge performance. And rankings are NOT determined by keyword tags.

I even had this one client that during the dev phase, the meta keyword tags were not implemented. Months went by… Then one day during a site audit, I discovered the tags missing throughout the site at which point the tags were placed in the site. Months pass again, and to this day there are no significant improvements to the sites organic performance that can be associated to the meta keyword tag.

Anyway, I’m slightly off point, (just had to vent I suppose) getting back on topic… Now that Google has released the above, I would not deviate from what you are currently doing with the keyword tag. Its business as usual, this is not new news. For Google the meta keyword tag has done nothing for years, changing it now does nothing for Google.