Does Google use keyword meta data to rank your website?

 

Lately, We have been asked by serveral of our ZI friends, family, strangers on the street, kids, pets....  the exact role that keyword meta tags play in helping their websites get ranked on Google and Bing.  I wanted to go ahead and get this out to as many folks that may have the same question as quickly as possible.

 

So, does Google or Bing use meta data to rank your website?????

 

Google says NO, Nada, No Way!

Google in no way what so ever uses any of the keyword meta tag information on your website to rank you on their search engine. They even posted this as their official statement on their Webmaster Central Blog. You wanna guess when they did this? Go Ahead Take a Wild Guess!

September of......2009!

That's right! It's been over three years since they made this declaration against keyword meta tags. Here is the exact blog post for you guys keeping score at home.

However, they do mention that they use the meta titles and descriptions for display purposes. This means that they show it in the search results, but don't use it to help your ranking placement.

So, make sure you have a good title and meta description that details what the content on the page is actually about so that web searchers will be enticed to become your web visitors.

 

Bing says "Sure, why not!"

Not a whole lot to say here. Bing says that they do use the keyword meta info to help in their search results. And, no matter what the TV commercials say, Bing is still not as reliable for accurate search results as Google.

 

Most SEO "experts" say that if you spend a lot of time developing your meta keyword tags then you are wasting your time.

So, you can follow what Google ( the originator of 80%+ of search traffic) says, or you can spend your time messing with one small piece of something that drives maybe 10% of search traffic to your website says.

 

Myth Busted... Yes Or No?

 

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