Webmaster Central Blog
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index
Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking
Thứ Hai, tháng 9 21, 2009
Recently we received some questions about how Google uses (or more accurately, doesn't use) the "keywords" meta tag in ranking web search results. Suppose you have two website owners, Alice and Bob. Alice runs a company called AliceCo and Bob runs BobCo. One day while looking at Bob's site, Alice notices that Bob has copied some of the words that she uses in her "keywords" meta tag. Even more interesting, Bob has added the words "AliceCo" to his "keywords" meta tag. Should Alice be concerned?
At least for Google's web search results currently (September 2009), the answer is no. Google doesn't use the "keywords" meta tag in our web search ranking. This video explains more, or see the questions below.
Q: Does Google ever use the "keywords" meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has
the ability to match meta tags
, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that's an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don't have any effect in our search ranking at present.
Q: Why doesn't Google use the keywords meta tag?
A: 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.
Q: Does this mean that Google ignores all meta tags?
A: No, Google does support several other meta tags. This
meta tags
page documents more info on several meta tags that we do use. For example, we do sometimes use the "description" meta tag as the text for our search results snippets, as this screenshot shows:
Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don't use the description meta tag in our ranking.
Q: Does this mean that Google will always ignore the keywords meta tag?
A: 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.
Posted by Matt Cutts, Search Quality Team
Hey!
Check here if your site is mobile-friendly.
Nhãn
accessibility
10
advanced
195
AMP
13
Android
2
API
7
apps
7
autocomplete
2
beginner
173
CAPTCHA
1
Chrome
2
cms
1
crawling and indexing
158
encryption
3
events
51
feedback and communication
83
forums
5
general tips
90
geotargeting
1
Google Assistant
3
Google I/O
3
Google Images
3
Google News
2
hacked sites
12
hangout
2
hreflang
3
https
5
images
12
intermediate
205
interstitials
1
javascript
8
job search
2
localization
21
malware
6
mobile
63
mobile-friendly
14
nohacked
1
performance
17
product expert
1
product experts
2
products and services
63
questions
3
ranking
1
recipes
1
rendering
2
Responsive Web Design
3
rich cards
7
rich results
10
search console
35
search for beginners
1
search queries
7
search results
140
security
12
seo
3
sitemaps
46
speed
6
structured data
33
summit
1
TLDs
1
url removals
1
UX
3
verification
8
video
6
webmaster community
24
webmaster forum
1
webmaster guidelines
57
webmaster tools
177
webmasters
3
youtube channel
6
Archive
2020
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2019
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2018
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2017
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2016
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 1
2015
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2014
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2013
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2012
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2011
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2010
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2009
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2008
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2007
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
thg 7
thg 6
thg 5
thg 4
thg 3
thg 2
thg 1
2006
thg 12
thg 11
thg 10
thg 9
thg 8
Feed
Follow @googlewmc
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Subscribe via email
Enter your email address:
Delivered by
FeedBurner
