Short answer: meta keywords do nothing for your Google rankings. Google’s own Search Central documentation says the tag “is not used by Google Search, and it has no effect on indexing and ranking at all.” Bing has called it “dead in terms of SEO value.” Filling in a keywords field will not move a single position. The useful questions are the ones most guides skip: should you remove the tag, is the old list in your templates worth anything, and where should those keywords live now? This guide answers all three, with a decision table and a worked example.
What the Keywords Meta Tag Is
It is a line of HTML in a page’s <head> that lists terms the page is supposedly about, separated by commas. Visitors never see it. It looks like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="aircon servicing, aircon cleaning, aircon repair">
It is still valid HTML. The WHATWG HTML Standard defines keywords as a standard metadata name, and then adds a blunt note: “Many search engines do not consider such keywords, because this feature has historically been used unreliably and even misleadingly as a way to spam search engine results in a way that is not helpful for users.” The tag was designed when search engines trusted pages to describe themselves, and it died because pages lied. For the full map of head tags that still matter, see our guide to what meta tags are and which still count.
Why Google Stopped Using the Tag
In September 2009, Matt Cutts of Google’s search quality team published a post on the Google Webmaster Central blog with an unambiguous title: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking. His reasoning was abuse. Because the tag is invisible to users, site owners stuffed it with irrelevant terms, competitor brand names and anything else they hoped to rank for. A signal that anyone can set to anything, with no visible cost, is a signal a search engine cannot trust.
That post now carries an editor’s note restating that Google still doesn’t support the tag, and the SEO Starter Guide says it in one line: “Google Search doesn’t use the keywords meta tag.” There is no hidden partial weight and no tie-breaker role.
Google News once had its own variant, news_keywords, aimed at publishers. That one is gone too: Google confirmed in early 2018 that it no longer used it.
Bing, Yandex and Other Engines: The Real Status
The “it still works on Bing” claim refuses to die, so here is what each engine’s own source says.
| Search engine | What its own source says | Practical takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| Search Central: not used, no effect on indexing or ranking. | Zero value. Ignore. | |
| Bing | Bing Webmaster blog (2014, Duane Forrester): “dead in terms of SEO value”; it “flat lined years ago as a booster.” | No ranking lift. Earlier Bing comments suggested a stuffed tag could look spammy. |
| Yandex | Yandex Webmaster help still lists keywords among the meta tags it takes into account: it “can influence the page’s relevance to search queries.” |
The only major engine that documents any role. Treat it as a minor input, not a lever. |
| Google News | news_keywords support dropped (confirmed 2018). |
Safe to remove from article templates. |
The same 2014 Bing post noted the tag might still matter to contextual ad systems or to bots working out a page’s topic. That is not a reason to keep it for SEO, but it is a reason to check whether something on your own stack reads it before deleting. If Russian-speaking markets matter to you, our Yandex SEO guide covers the signals that carry real weight there, and none of them is the keywords tag.
Can Meta Keywords Hurt You? The Honest Risk
For Google, a keywords tag is neutral. Leaving an old one in place will not trigger a penalty, and deleting it will not produce a ranking jump. The real costs are quieter:
- You publish your keyword strategy. Anyone can open View Source and read exactly which terms you are targeting on each page.
- Stuffed tags look like spam. Google’s spam policies define keyword stuffing as filling a page with keywords “in an attempt to manipulate rankings.” A tag listing every city you serve or a rival’s brand name is that behaviour in miniature, and Bing staff have previously suggested an abused tag can count against a page rather than for it.
- Stale tags mislead your own team. Old lists survive redesigns and migrations, and new writers treat them as the page’s targets even after it has been repositioned.
Keep, Remove or Repurpose: A Decision Table
“Don’t use them” is fine advice for a new site, but an established site usually has the tag already, and blanket deletion is not always right.
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| New site, Google and Bing traffic | Don’t add the tag. Turn off any theme or plugin field that outputs it. |
| Old site with tags on many pages | Export them first (they are a free record of the original targeting), then remove at the template level. |
| The same tag on every page | It comes from one template or global setting. Delete it there; it carries no page-level meaning anyway. |
| Your own site search, product feed or recommendation widget reads the tag | Keep it as internal metadata: short, accurate, never stuffed. |
| Meaningful Yandex traffic | A short, accurate tag is harmless. Content and titles matter far more. |
| Tag contains competitor brands or long city lists | Remove it now. This is the one version with real downside. |
How to Find and Remove the Tag Across a Site
On a single page, open View Source and search for name="keywords". Across a whole site, run a crawl. Most desktop crawlers, Screaming Frog included, can be configured to extract the tag so you can export every URL that still has one. To check one page’s head quickly, paste its HTML into our free Meta Tag Analyzer to see every meta tag it outputs.
Then fix the source, not the symptom. Where the tag lives depends on the platform:
- WordPress: Yoast SEO removed its keywords tag feature in version 6.3, so modern Yoast installs don’t output it. If a WordPress site still has the tag, it is usually hard-coded in
header.php, added by an old plugin, or left over from a previous SEO plugin’s settings. - Custom and headless builds: look for a shared head component or layout file. Sitewide identical tags almost always come from one place.
- Ecommerce platforms: check product and collection templates, and any import that maps a “keywords” or “tags” column into the head.
Before deleting, ask whoever owns site search or merchandising whether any system reads the field.
The Mistake Most Guides Miss: The Focus Keyword Field
Much of the confusion comes from SEO plugins. Yoast has a “focus keyphrase” field and Rank Math has a “focus keyword” field. Neither outputs the keywords tag. Yoast’s own help page says the focus keyphrase is “not a signal that we give to search engines” in and of itself. It is a private input the plugin uses to grade your title, headings and copy against the term you picked.
So when a client says “we added our keywords in Yoast,” that tells you nothing about how the page is optimised. We cover choosing and placing that one primary term in our guide to the focus keyword.
Where Your Keywords Should Go Instead
The keywords you used to list in the tag still matter. They just need to live in the parts of the page that Google reads and users see. Here is the placement cheat sheet:
| Location | What to put there | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | Primary keyword, near the front | Strong relevance hint and usually the clickable headline in results |
| H1 | Primary keyword or a close variant | Confirms the page topic to readers who just clicked |
| First paragraph | Primary keyword, answering the query directly | Shows the page delivers what the searcher asked for |
| H2s | Sub-topics and secondary terms | Covers the related questions people actually ask |
| URL slug | Short, readable, keyword-based | Google says it has little effect beyond breadcrumbs, but it helps people scan |
| Image alt text | Literal description, keyword only if accurate | Accessibility first, image search second |
| Internal link anchors | Descriptive text pointing to the page | Tells Google what the target page is about |
| Meta description | Keyword plus the payoff of clicking | Not a ranking factor, but often shown as the snippet |
For the two elements that most affect clicks, see how to write SEO title tags and how to write a meta description. You can check pixel widths before publishing with the free SERP Snippet Preview. And don’t swap one form of stuffing for another: our piece on keyword density explains why repetition counts are the wrong target.
Worked Example: Turning an Old Tag Into a Keyword Map
Here is the step most cleanup guides skip. A legacy tag is often the only written record of what a page was meant to rank for. Mine it before you delete it. Say a service page carries this:
aircon servicing, aircon servicing singapore, aircon cleaning, cheap aircon servicing, best aircon servicing, aircon repair, aircon chemical wash
Sort those terms by intent instead of pasting them back anywhere:
- The primary term: “aircon servicing singapore” goes in the title, H1 and opening paragraph. “Aircon servicing” and “aircon cleaning” are close variants that belong naturally in the copy.
- Modifiers, not keywords: “cheap” and “best” signal what buyers care about. Answer them with a clear pricing section and proof of quality, not by repeating the words.
- Different jobs, different pages: “aircon repair” and “aircon chemical wash” are separate services with different intent. Cramming them onto the servicing page dilutes it. Each deserves its own page, linked from this one.
That sorting step is keyword grouping. Do it by hand for a few terms, or paste a longer list into the free Keyword Grouping Tool. If two existing pages turn out to target the same group, run them through the Keyword Cannibalization Checker before you write anything new.
Build a Keyword Map That Lives Outside Your HTML
The tag was always a bad place to store targeting: public and unverified. The modern replacement is a keyword map: a private sheet or tool that records one primary keyword per URL, its secondary terms, search volume, difficulty and intent. It stops two pages competing for one query.
This is where SEO Rocket fits. Ask the chat to research a topic and it pulls real Ahrefs data (volume, keyword difficulty and intent) rather than guesses, then groups terms so each URL gets one clear target. Competitor gap analysis shows which terms rivals rank for that your map is missing. When a page is ready to write, the article writer’s validation gates check title and meta description lengths before anything ships. It is the same playbook proven across 1,000,000+ ranking pages: decide the target, place it where it counts, and track whether it moves.
Meta Keywords FAQ
Does Google use meta keywords at all?
No. Google’s Search Central documentation states the tag has no effect on indexing or ranking, and Google has said so publicly since 2009.
Does Bing use the meta keywords tag?
Not as a ranking boost. Bing’s own webmaster blog called it “dead in terms of SEO value.” Bing staff have previously framed an abused tag as a possible spam hint, so stuffing it is worse than leaving it out.
Should I remove the tag from my site?
Usually yes, after exporting them and confirming nothing internal reads them. Removal won’t raise rankings, but it stops you publishing your targeting and keeps templates clean.
Are meta tags still important for SEO?
Some are. The title tag, meta description, meta robots and viewport tags all do real work, along with the canonical link element. The keywords tag is the one you can drop.
The Bottom Line
Meta keywords are a relic of the self-reported web. Don’t add them, remove them deliberately, and treat any old list as research to mine. The ranking work happens in titles, headings, copy and internal links, backed by a keyword map built on real search data.
