Do Meta Keywords Still Matter for SEO?

No. Google does not use the meta keywords tag for ranking, and adding it will not help your pages. Other search engines give it little or no weight too. You can safely leave it out and put your effort into titles, descriptions, content and links instead.

What the tag was

Early search engines read a list of keywords in the page head to guess a page’s topic. The format looked like this:

<meta name="keywords" content="plumber, drain cleaning, leak repair">

Why it stopped working

People filled it with irrelevant or repeated terms to manipulate results, so search engines learned to ignore it. Google has said publicly that it does not use the tag in its ranking.

Rather have an expert do this for you?

Hand it over and get back to running your business.

Hand it over to me

Could it hurt you?

It will not cause a penalty at Google, but it also reveals your target phrases to competitors who view the source. That is a small downside for no upside.

What to use instead

A clear title tag that states the page topic.
A useful meta description that earns clicks.
Headings and body copy that cover the subject properly.
Internal links with descriptive text.

See my guides on optimizing title tags and optimizing meta tags.

If your CMS adds it automatically

Some themes and plugins output the tag. You can turn the field off or leave it empty. Generate only the tags that matter with the meta tag generator.

Frequently asked questions

Should I delete it from old pages?

It is optional. Removing it is tidy but not urgent.

Is keyword research still needed?

Yes, but for planning content, not for filling a meta tag. Follow the keyword research guide.

Next steps

If you want a full on-page check of your site, contact me here.

More in this series (meta tag questions): start with Free Meta Tag Generator, then explore: