Meta keywords are a comma-separated list of words in a page's <head>, written as <meta name="keywords" content="…">, that once told search engines what the page was about. Google has not used them for ranking since at least 2009 and says the tag has no effect on indexing, so today they do nothing for your position in Google. This guide explains what the tag is, why it stopped working, how other search engines treat it, and whether you should remove the ones your site still carries. It is part of our guide to meta tags for SEO, which covers the tags that do matter.
Quick answer
- What they are:
<meta name="keywords" content="trekking shoes, hiking boots">in the page's head. Visitors never see them. - Google ignores them. Google said in September 2009 that it does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking, and its list of supported meta tags still says so.
- Bing does not reward them either. Bing has said the tag carries little or no weight and that a stuffed one can look like spam.
- They do not hurt in Google, but they tell competitors which keywords you target.
- You can remove them at your next template change. There is no ranking gain or loss either way in Google.
- Spend the time on the title and meta description, which people read in the search results.
What are meta keywords?
The keywords meta tag is an HTML element that lists the words and phrases a page is supposed to be about. It sits in the head with the other meta tags:
<head>
<title>Trekking shoes for women · Outdoor Shop</title>
<meta name="description" content="120 waterproof and lightweight models, sizes 36–43.">
<meta name="keywords" content="trekking shoes, women's hiking boots, waterproof shoes">
</head>There is no fixed format beyond "words separated by commas". The HTML standard lists keywords as one of its standard metadata names, described as a set of comma-separated tokens relevant to the page. The standard defines what the value is, not what any search engine does with it.
In the mid-1990s, search engines such as AltaVista and Infoseek read the tag because they had limited ways of working out a page's topic from its text. You told them your keywords and they believed you.
Why did Google stop using meta keywords?
Because the tag was too easy to abuse. If a search engine ranks a page for the words its owner declares, owners declare the words with the most searches, whether or not the page is about them. By the late 1990s keyword tags were stuffed with hundreds of terms, competitors' brand names and popular searches that had nothing to do with the page.
Search engines responded by reading the page itself: the title, headings, body text and, from Google's start in 1998, the links other sites point at the page. Those signals are harder to fake than a line of text only crawlers see, so the keywords tag lost its value long before the official announcements.
On 21 September 2009, Google's Webmaster Central blog published "Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking", written by Matt Cutts, then head of Google's webspam team. The post is short and clear: Google's web search disregards the keywords meta tag completely. The same post noted that Google does sometimes use the meta description for the snippet, but not for ranking.
Does Google use meta keywords today?
No. Google Search Central's page "Meta tags and attributes that Google supports" lists the tags Google reads and states that the keywords meta tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing and ranking. That has not changed since 2009.
Nothing in Google's systems has replaced it with a "keywords" field either. Google works out what a page is about from the words on the page, the title, the headings, the links pointing at it and how people use it. If you want to rank for a phrase, the phrase belongs in those places, written for people.
Do other search engines use meta keywords?
Mostly not, and none of the large ones rewards them.
- Bing: in 2011 Duane Forrester, then Bing's webmaster outreach lead, described the tag as a minor signal at best, and explained that a stuffed keywords tag is more likely to be read as a sign of spam than as a relevance signal. There is nothing to gain from filling it in, and something to lose from stuffing it.
- Yahoo has used Bing's results in most markets since 2010, so it follows Bing.
- DuckDuckGo and other engines that draw largely on Bing's results inherit the same view.
Some site search engines, intranet tools and older CMS search features still read the tag for their internal results. If your own on-site search relies on it, check that before you remove it.
Are meta keywords important for SEO?
No. They are not a ranking factor in Google, they carry no positive weight in Bing, and no tool that measures search visibility gives them credit. An SEO audit that lists "missing meta keywords" as a problem is out of date.
The tag is also not harmful in Google. A page with a keywords tag ranks exactly as it would without one, so there is no emergency. The two small costs are:
- It shows your strategy. Anyone who views your source sees the exact phrases you target.
- It invites stuffing. A long, repetitive keywords list is the kind of thing Bing treats with suspicion.
getReport does not check the keywords tag at all, for the same reason: a finding that cannot change your rankings would only distract from the ones that can.
Should I remove meta keywords from my site?
Removing them is tidy, not urgent. Do it when you are already editing the templates or the SEO plugin settings, and do not let it jump ahead of real fixes such as missing titles, duplicate descriptions or a stray noindex.
WordPress
WordPress core never printed a keywords tag. If yours has one, it comes from a theme or plugin.
- Yoast SEO removed its meta keywords feature in version 6.3, released in February 2018, so current versions print none.
- Other SEO plugins may still offer a keywords field or a setting that prints one; look in the plugin's general or advanced settings and switch it off.
- Themes sometimes hard-code a keywords tag in
header.php. Search the theme files forname="keywords", and make the change in a child theme so an update does not bring it back.
Shopify
Shopify themes do not print a keywords tag by default. If yours does, it was added to theme.liquid or a snippet by a theme developer or an app: open Online Store → Themes → Edit code and search for keywords.
Static sites and frameworks
Search your layouts and head components for keywords. In Next.js, the metadata object has a keywords field; leaving it out prints no tag.
After removing the tag, view the page source (Ctrl+U, or Cmd+Option+U on a Mac) and search for name="keywords" to confirm it is gone.
What should I do instead of meta keywords?
Put the effort into the places Google does read. Each of these is a real signal or a real click factor:
| Instead of… | Do this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Listing keywords in a hidden tag | Put the main phrase in the <title>, topic first | The title is a ranking signal and the usual headline in results |
| Listing variants and synonyms | Use them naturally in headings and body text | Google matches the words people see on the page |
| Declaring the page's topic | Write a meta description that answers the search | It is often the snippet that decides the click |
| Targeting many phrases on one page | Give each distinct intent its own page | One page, one intent is easier for Google to rank |
| Keyword lists per page | Keep a keyword map in a spreadsheet | Your planning stays private and in one place |
For the title, follow the patterns in how to write page titles that rank and get clicked. For the description, the meta description examples by page type show before-and-after rewrites you can copy, and meta descriptions: length, wording and Google rewrites explains why Google sometimes swaps yours out.
How to check which meta tags a page has
The meta tags checker reads the title, meta description, canonical, robots, viewport, language and favicon tags of any public page, plus the Open Graph and Twitter basics, and flags the ones that are missing, too long or inconsistent. It deliberately skips the keywords tag. These are the findings that matter more than any keyword list:
Common mistakes
- Treating "no meta keywords" as an SEO problem. Some older audit tools still flag it. You can ignore that finding.
- Copying the keywords list into the description. A description like "trekking shoes, hiking boots, waterproof shoes" reads like spam to people and is likely to be replaced by Google.
- Stuffing the title instead. The lesson of the keywords tag is that repeating phrases does not work; a title with three variants of the same phrase is more likely to be rewritten.
- Confusing the tag with keyword research. Knowing what people search is still essential. Declaring it in a meta tag is what stopped working.
- Using
news_keywords. Google News introduced thenews_keywordstag in 2012 and confirmed in 2018 that it no longer uses it. Leaving it on old articles is harmless; adding it to new ones does nothing.
Questions people ask
Does Google use meta keywords for ranking?
No. Google announced in September 2009 that its web search ignores the keywords meta tag, and its current Search Central list of supported meta tags says the tag is not used by Google Search and has no effect on indexing or ranking. Adding, changing or removing it will not move your position in Google, so spend the time on titles and descriptions instead.
Are meta keywords bad for SEO?
Not in Google, which ignores them completely, so a keywords tag neither helps nor hurts a page there. Bing has said a stuffed keywords tag can look like spam, so a long list of repeated or unrelated terms is a small risk. The tag also shows competitors which phrases you target. Remove it when convenient; do not add new ones.
How many meta keywords should I use?
None. No major search engine rewards the tag, so there is no right number. If an old template or plugin requires a value, keep it to a few accurate words that appear on the page, which avoids any spam signal in Bing. Put the effort into one clear title and a description that answers the searcher's question.
Does Yoast SEO still have a meta keywords field?
No. Yoast removed its meta keywords feature in version 6.3, released in February 2018, and current versions print no keywords tag. The "focus keyphrase" field in Yoast is different: it is only an input for Yoast's own content analysis, is never printed in the page's HTML and is not sent to Google.
What replaced meta keywords in SEO?
Nothing replaced it as a tag. Google works out a page's topic from its visible content: the title, headings, body text, image alt text, internal links and the links other sites point at it. The practical replacement is a keyword map you keep for yourself, one main phrase per page, used naturally in the title, the H1 and the first paragraph.