Building Mailing Lists, List Building, Social Media, Niche Marketing

To Sum it Up, They Ignore it

Google does not use the “keywords” meta tag in its web search ranking. Google’s Matt Cutts explains this in a Webmaster Central video. This is not breaking news, by any means, but there are a lot of people out there that still put a lot of stock into this.

In fact, Cutts mentions that people have sued each other for meta tag keyword theft, when really this is just a waste of everybody’s time, because they don’t even play a role in the ranking of sites on Google. Have you been under the impression that the keywords meta tag was important to ranking in Google? Comment here.

“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,” says Cutts. “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.”

Just because Google ignores the “keywords” meta tag, that doesn’t mean it ignores all meta tags. In fact, there are several that the search engine definitely uses. For one, Google sometimes uses the “description” meta tag as the text for search results snippets. But even in then, the “description” meta tag isn’t used to influence ranking.

Google also recognizes the “google,” “robots,” “verify-v1,” “content type,” and “refresh” meta tags. Information about how Google understands these can be found at this page in the Webmaster Tools help center.

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

So the moral of the story is, if a competitor is jacking your keywords, and using them in their own “keywords” meta tag, this will have no effect whatsoever in how they rank in Google when compared to your site. Cutts says other search engines might use the information, but Google doesn’t.

Google does note that its enterprise Search Appliance has the ability to match meta tags, but this is of course separate from Google web search.

As I have said before, these videos and other tips Google frequently gives out are worth paying attention to for any webmaster looking to rank well. Whether they’re talking about duplicate content, meta tags, or paid links, they’re all aimed at telling webmasters how it is, and clarifying any misconceptions to the contrary. Whether you agree with Google’s methods in all cases or not, the tips are for your benefit.

Like it or not, Google controls what people find on the web when they search. The company’s huge market share is just something that is. There is always the possibility that could change in the future, but at this point, it looks like webmasters are not going to be able to ignore Google for a long time, if they hope to be found on the web by searchers.

We realize (and Google surely does too) that many well-seasoned marketers already know that Google ignores the “keywords” meta tag, but webmasters are born everyday, and not all of them have been so heavily seasoned to this point, and that’s why Google puts this information out there. There is always misinformation (particularly when it comes to search), and sometimes the record just has to be set straight. Who better to do that than Google itself?

Do you find Google’s Webmaster Central videos useful or do you think they’re mostly just retreads of things you already know? Share your thoughts with WebProNews.

About the author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Twitter: @CCrum237

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Knowing how to drive traffic to your website and actually “driving the traffic” can at times be very different. I’ll admit, I have built sites for myself and others where I did everything I was told or read to do, only to ask “Where’s the traffic?”. I feel like I’m striving for the allusive prize in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” beating bloody coconuts together and getting nowhere fast… Or dare I mention the French Taunters … “Ni”

From what I’ve seen in the last five years when it comes to the Internet, no website can remain an island. Web sites must become “connected or webbed together” with others that are simular and/or stronger than itself. This way both spiders and surfers can be attracted by numerious sources which makes your material or services more easily found.

Personally I believe that tags still have their use (Yahoo!, MSN, …), blogs seem to contain ‘stickyness’ which is important to drawing readers and potential customers (WordPress appears to be one of the better choices expecially when your hosting it yourself), the term “content is king” at times tends to be a joke. Example, what about sites that get indexed in the top 30 when the webmaster hasn’t even uploaded any pages yet (doesn’t that just tick you off). And as far as Google’s natural search results go, well Google is Google! What works today …

If you are looking for an outside source for information, one that I think is worthy of mention is SitePro News. It often has good tips on how to better your site and it’s ranking in the SE’s.

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