Meta Keywords
Meta keywords is a <meta name="keywords"> tag that was once used to feed a page's keyword list to search engines — a meta tag left over from the early search era. Google confirmed on its official blog in 2009 that it does not use the tag in web ranking. It is effectively deprecated, yet questions like "how many meta keywords should I add" are still searched often enough that the misconception deserves a proper burial.
Meta keywords is a <meta name="keywords"> tag that was once used to feed a page's keyword list to search engines — a meta tag left over from the early search era. Google confirmed on its official blog in 2009 that it does not use the tag in web ranking. It is effectively deprecated, yet questions like "how many meta keywords should I add" are still searched often enough that the misconception deserves a proper burial.
<meta name="keywords" content="blogging, SEO, content marketing">
Why It Matters
The tag itself no longer helps SEO — the problem is not knowing that. Outdated SEO checklists, leftover CMS fields, and old agency guidelines still ask for meta keywords, so teams keep spending time on work with zero effect, or worse, work that backfires. Knowing why the tag died lets you skip the trap and spend that effort on elements that actually influence rankings.
Why Google Stopped Using It
Search engines of the 1990s were poor at analyzing page content, so they leaned on the keyword lists site owners provided. Owners responded by stuffing the tag with dozens of popular keywords unrelated to the page — classic keyword stuffing — and the signal collapsed under the abuse.
In September 2009 Google formally announced that it does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking, noting it had already ignored the tag for years. Yahoo! announced the same in October 2009, and in 2014 Bing declared the tag "dead in terms of SEO value," warning that heavy use can even be read as a spam signal.
Do Other Search Engines Use It?
- Naver: Korea's leading search engine does not factor meta keywords into ranking. Naver's search optimization guidelines focus on the title and description tags and do not cover the keywords tag at all.
- Bing: Not a ranking signal, and a tag crammed with keywords may serve as a spam indicator.
- Others: A few engines such as Yandex are sometimes reported to reference it in a limited way, but the effect is unverified and their share of global traffic is small.
In short, no search engine that matters in global or Korean markets rewards the meta keywords tag.
Why You Still Shouldn't Use It
- Zero ranking benefit: Every minute spent writing and maintaining the tag is wasted.
- It exposes your strategy: Meta keywords are visible to anyone via view-source, handing your carefully researched target keyword list to competitors.
- It can look spammy: A keyword-stuffed tag carries only downside — engines like Bing may treat it as a low-quality signal.
Put the same effort into the elements that do influence search: a well-crafted title tag, a compelling meta description, and body content where keywords appear naturally.
Sources:
- Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking - Google Search Central Blog
- Meta keywords are no longer helpful for SEO - Yoast
Related inblog Posts
How inblog Helps
inblog does not output a keywords meta tag — instead it lets you set the meta title and meta description per post, the fields that actually affect search results. Place your target keywords in the post title, subheadings, and body where readers encounter them naturally; that is the approach inblog is built around.