This video from Google discusses the use of Meta Tags in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  In a nutshell (if you don’t want to watch the guy in the Panda Shirt), Google does not look at the hidden meta keywords in the code on the “backside” of your web page.  Not a surprise to most SEO professionals, but still refreshing to see Google admit it so openly.

Often I meet with Clients who have been led to believe that if you put “magic words” in the code you will automatically leap to the top of Google’s rankings.  This is absolutely not true, and Google has admitted (see video) that they don’t even look at those words.

Does this mean that you shouldn’t use the keywords tag?

No.  There is a belief that Yahoo! and Bing probably do use the keywords tag, and that they base some ranking upon the words that are used.  Additionally there are quite a few other Search Engines out there that shouldn’t be ignored entirely.  It is likely that they use the keywords tag.  The Keywords meta tag should not be ignored, but it also shouldn’t keep you up until 3am pouring over different keywords.

There are over 200 different ranking parameters that Google uses to decide where a page is going to show up in the rankings, and most of those have to do with the things that you can actually see on the page.  Content is king.  If you have good relevant content organized and coded correctly and presented to the search engine spiders in a coherent method…  you will rank.

Having a SEO professional review and fix your website will help immensely.  Especially if your website was originally designed with the belief that the keywords meta tag was the golden egg.

Jennifer Web Design offers free initial consultation (including reports) on your Search Engine Optimization, and the price to optimize your site is probably a lot less than you think.  Give us a call today at 702-880-9565 to discuss the options that are available to you, or e-mail me at ben@jwdmc.com.  I’ll be happy to sit down with you over a cup of yummy coffee and come up with a game plan to take your ranking to the next level.