Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

See: https://searchenginewatch.com/article/2067564/How-To-Use-HTML-Meta-Tags

Currently, it doesn't appear that any search engine is really using the keyword meta tag at all. The title meta tag is mostly for display purposes only.

SEOMoz has an on-page optimization article here: https://www.seomoz.org/blog/perfecting-keyword-targeting-on-page-optimizati...

This is a bit of a long topic but here ares some suggestions:

1. There has been much discussion lately about over-optimization since the Penguin updates. Over optimization has, however, been a consideration for some time. Be careful with how many repetitions and keywords are placed within a given page element. It's best to keep the page optimized for one or two keyword phrases. Otherwise the pages tend to read like gibberish. The same goes with the other elements including the title.

2. You can include keyword variations within the body content.

3. The title element, while not technically a meta tag, is the most important ranking signal on-page. Each one should be unique and should include one or two keyword phrases. Well written titles can compel users to click on search engine results pages so consider them important sales copy as well. Keep your keyword phrase to the beginning of the element. Push the repeated content (better to not have it) to the end. The site name should be appended rather than prepended.

4. Repeat your keyword phrase in the body content of the page. Long past usable, the keyword density metric does reveal very low keyword densities on given keyword phrases. Excessive repetitions will more likely harm you.

5. The keyword meta tag now does nothing more than reveal business intelligence. Don't bother unless it improves your internal site search or provides some benefit to your content management system, etc.

6. Make sure you have good internal linkage and use your keyword phrase in anchor text pointing to the page.

7. The meta description isn't known to be a ranking signal. However, it should be unique on each page and is another opportunity to inject sales copy into the search engine results pages. Research has shown that it influences click-throughs to a greater extent than even the title. Write good ones.

8. It's arguable whether including the keyword in H1 provides benefit but it does highlight the keyword phrase so I typically look to include it there. Bolding an instance couldn't hurt either.

Remember, if it looks contrived it probably is and is a signal that the page is engineered for search engines rather than users. The best optimized pages are the ones that don't look it.

I'm sure I'll think of some more but this is a good start.

Hi Phil,

I hope the following links are of value:

https://community.intuit.com/posts/position-of-keywords-in-source-code

https://websearch.about.com/od/keywordsandphrase1/a/keywordscontent.htm

Good luck!

I have been subscribing to content from Perry Marshall, co-author of The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, and he confirms what Jay Hamilton-Roth says about the keyword meta tag: Google basically ignores it.

At one time the keyword meta tag was only a negative factor -- it could hurt you if you had words or phrases in the meta tag that were not on the page. And before that the keyword meta tag was one of several factors that contributed to the Quality Score and ranking.

No more. Now it's essentially irrelevant.

The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords just came out with a 3rd edition, and that may include this information. I don't have it yet, so I can't verify that. (I'm still using the 2nd edition, though I know some of the content in that edition is now obsolete.)