The Meta Keywords Tag is another Tag which is used in the <head></head> section of the website and has some SEO significance. Although it does not contribute much towards the SEO of a webpage, some Search Engines like Yahoo give importance to this tag, and can help in achieving a higher ranking on the Search Engine. Google however, purposely no longer uses this tag, so this tag will not help in your Google Rankings. However, Search Engine policies change on a continuous basis, therefore, the Meta Keywords tag cannot be completely ignored. Using them on your website pages will help you, rather than penalizing you on the Search Engines, as it is through the Meta Keyword Tags that the search engines identify what your web page is about.
Format for Meta Keywords Tag
The proper format for adding a Meta Keywords tag to your web page is by using the following code:
<meta name=”keywords” content=”important keyword, comma separated, more keywords” />
Tips for Meta Keywords
Similar to the tips for writing Title Tag for your website pages, there are tips for writing Meta Keywords for your website pages also. These tips are given below:
- Use the most important keywords or key phrases in your Meta Keywords Tag
- Do not use non themed keywords in your Meta Keyword tag. Only use the most relevant keywords for that page
- Do not repeat keywords or phrases again and again in your Meta Keywords Tag
- Limit your Keywords Tag to 8 - 10 highly related keywords only
- Use commas to separate the words and phrases in the Meta Keywords Tag
- Use the most important keywords in the beginning of the Meta Tags, and the less important ones near the end of the Meta Tag
- Use a Keyword Suggestion or Research tool to find related keywords for a web page
- Try and use both singular and plural versions of the keywords in your Meta Keywords Tag
- Try and use spelling variations in your Meta Keywords Tag
- Make sure that you use the keywords you add to the Meta Keywords Tag in the content of your web page also
How to decide the keywords for a web page
When you need to decide the keywords you will be adding to a web page, you can start by first identifying the theme and topic of the page for which you want to write keywords for. Scan through the content of that page and identify the important keywords which are related together.
With the list of keywords, use a Keyword Research Tool like WordTracker and find out related keywords which you can use on your website.
When you have an updated list of keywords with the new key phrases, divide them appropriately in sets of 10 - 12 keywords each to use on your website pages.
Insert the final keywords in the Meta Keywords Tag as shown in the example above in between the <head></head> tags of your web page.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
[…] a Web page’s content and its theme to the Search Engines. In Search Engine Optimization, Meta Keywords Tag and Meta Description Tag are read by Search Engines to identify the theme and topic of a web page. […]