{"id":9637,"date":"2009-09-21T23:16:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T17:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=9637"},"modified":"2026-10-15T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T05:47:06","slug":"keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Meta Keywords Tag Useless for SEO? (2026 Answer)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How often do you stuff keywords into the <strong>meta keywords tag<\/strong> on your pages? Back in September 2009 Google confirmed what many of us suspected: the meta keywords tag plays no part in Google rankings. That is still true in 2026, so here is what the tag is, what each search engine does with it today, and the meta tags you should spend your time on instead.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-66757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo-1024x538.webp\" alt=\"Meta keywords tag and SEO\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo-768x403.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/meta-keywords-tag-seo.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> Yes, for SEO the meta keywords tag is useless. Google does not use it for indexing or ranking, Bing gives it no ranking value and has said a stuffed tag can look like spam, and Yahoo dropped it in 2009. You can safely leave it out. Put your effort into the title tag, the meta description and the page content instead.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ae485b964fff\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ae485b964fff\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#What_is_the_meta_keywords_tag\" >What is the meta keywords tag?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Does_Google_use_the_meta_keywords_tag\" >Does Google use the meta keywords tag?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#What_about_Bing_and_Yahoo\" >What about Bing and Yahoo?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Should_you_remove_the_meta_keywords_tag\" >Should you remove the meta keywords tag?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Meta_tags_that_still_matter_for_SEO_in_2026\" >Meta tags that still matter for SEO in 2026<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Where_keywords_really_belong\" >Where keywords really belong<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Does_the_meta_keywords_tag_help_SEO_in_2026\" >Does the meta keywords tag help SEO in 2026?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Can_the_meta_keywords_tag_hurt_my_rankings\" >Can the meta keywords tag hurt my rankings?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Is_the_meta_keywords_tag_the_same_as_a_focus_keyword_in_Yoast_or_Rank_Math\" >Is the meta keywords tag the same as a focus keyword in Yoast or Rank Math?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/09\/keywords-meta-tag-useless-for-google-seo\/#Do_any_search_engines_still_use_meta_keywords\" >Do any search engines still use meta keywords?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_the_meta_keywords_tag\"><\/span>What is the meta keywords tag?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It is an HTML tag in the page head that lists words the page is supposedly about. This is how a typical one looks:<\/p>\n<p><code>&lt;meta name=\"keywords\" content=\"keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3\"&gt;<\/code><\/p>\n<p>In the late 1990s some search engines read it to understand pages. Because visitors never see it, site owners quickly filled it with every keyword they hoped to rank for, including unrelated popular terms, and search engines stopped trusting it.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_Google_use_the_meta_keywords_tag\"><\/span>Does Google use the meta keywords tag?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>No. On 21 September 2009 Matt Cutts, then head of Google&#8217;s webspam team, published the post <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/blog\/2009\/09\/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking<\/a> on the official webmaster blog, along with a short <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video explaining it<\/a>. Google&#8217;s current documentation on <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/crawling-indexing\/special-tags\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">meta tags Google understands<\/a> still says the keywords tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing or ranking.<\/p>\n<p>Google works out what a page is about from its visible content: the title, headings, body text, images and the links pointing to it. Next time an SEO article tells you to optimize your meta keywords, remember that Googlebot does not even look at them.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_about_Bing_and_Yahoo\"><\/span>What about Bing and Yahoo?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bing:<\/strong> Bing has never treated the tag as a ranking signal. In 2011 Bing&#8217;s Duane Forrester said Bing looks at it mainly as a possible <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/the-meta-keywords-tag-lives-at-bing-why-only-spammers-should-use-it-96874\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spam signal<\/a>: a tag stuffed with dozens of terms is a hint that a page may be low quality.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Yahoo:<\/strong> Yahoo stopped using the tag in October 2009, a few weeks after Google&#8217;s announcement. Yahoo search results have come from Bing for years now.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other engines:<\/strong> No major search engine today uses the tag to rank pages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Should_you_remove_the_meta_keywords_tag\"><\/span>Should you remove the meta keywords tag?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>You don&#8217;t have to rush, because a short, honest tag won&#8217;t hurt you in Google. But there are good reasons to drop it:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It shows your strategy to competitors.<\/strong> Anyone can view your page source and copy the keywords you target.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A stuffed tag can look spammy<\/strong> to Bing, as above.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It wastes time<\/strong> that is better spent on content and titles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most modern SEO plugins no longer output the tag at all. Rank Math, which we use here, doesn&#8217;t have a meta keywords field; its &#8220;focus keyword&#8221; is only an internal guide for its content analysis and never appears in your HTML. See our list of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/02\/best-wordpress-seo-plugins\/\">best WordPress SEO plugins<\/a> for more.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Meta_tags_that_still_matter_for_SEO_in_2026\"><\/span>Meta tags that still matter for SEO in 2026<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Title tag:<\/strong> the clickable headline in search results and still one of the strongest on-page signals. Keep it to about 60 characters with the main keyword near the start.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Meta description:<\/strong> not a ranking factor, but Google often shows it as the snippet, so a good one earns more clicks. Here is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/06\/how-to-insert-meta-description-tags-in-wordpress\/\">how to add a meta description in WordPress<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Robots meta tag:<\/strong> controls indexing with values like noindex and nofollow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Viewport:<\/strong> tells browsers how to show the page on phones.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Canonical link:<\/strong> not a meta tag strictly, but it tells search engines which URL is the main version of duplicate pages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Where_keywords_really_belong\"><\/span>Where keywords really belong<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Instead of a hidden keywords list, use the words people actually search for where readers can see them: in the title, the first paragraph, a heading or two, image alt text and naturally through the content. Our guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/11\/keyword-research\/\">keyword research<\/a> shows how to find those phrases, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/11\/seo-checklist\/\">SEO checklist<\/a> covers the rest of the basics. For free measurement, try these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2023\/01\/free-google-seo-tools\/\">free Google SEO tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_the_meta_keywords_tag_help_SEO_in_2026\"><\/span>Does the meta keywords tag help SEO in 2026?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. Google ignores it completely and Bing gives it no ranking value.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_the_meta_keywords_tag_hurt_my_rankings\"><\/span>Can the meta keywords tag hurt my rankings?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In Google, no. In Bing, a tag stuffed with many terms can be treated as a spam hint, so if you keep one, keep it short and accurate.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_the_meta_keywords_tag_the_same_as_a_focus_keyword_in_Yoast_or_Rank_Math\"><\/span>Is the meta keywords tag the same as a focus keyword in Yoast or Rank Math?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. A focus keyword is a setting inside the plugin that helps it check your content. It is not added to the page as a meta keywords tag.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Do_any_search_engines_still_use_meta_keywords\"><\/span>Do any search engines still use meta keywords?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>None of the major ones use it for ranking. Some internal site search tools can read it, which is the only practical use left.<\/p>\n<p>Do you still have meta keywords on your site? Tell us in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How often do you stuff keywords into the meta keywords tag on your pages? Back in September 2009 Google confirmed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":66757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-google","category-search-engine-optimization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66758,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions\/66758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}