SEO Services > SEO FAQ > Meta Keywords

What is the meta keyword tag? Does it serve a purpose in SEO?

The meta keyword tag is an HTML code placed in the header of a web page, after the title tag and meta description tag. The original purpose of the meta keyword list was to identify various keywords used on your page as fodder for the search engines to feed upon in determining the focus, subject and relevance of your site.

While the meta keyword and other meta tags were at one time valuable SEO tool, they no longer have as much importance to search engine crawlers as they did in the past. However, the meta keyword should still not be overlooked as an important part of search engine optimization.

The meta keyword tag looks like this:

The basic things to remember when creating the meta keyword list is to include the primary keywords at the beginning, and to seperate all keywords with commas.

Since the meta keyword tag is essentially a place to load up keywords for the sake of search engine marketing, many search engines now place very little relevance on them, since it is too easy for any site to plug keywords there. However, most web optimizers still include the meta keyword, since it can be a good way to highlight the keywords present in the actual content of the web page itself. The meta keyword can draw attention to the rest of your SEO strategy, it is very easy to include on any web page.

The meta keyword tag can also help you keep your SEO marketing strategy straight. If you find that you are including keywords that are focusing on different subjects, you should eliminate one and make a new web page for that keyword. You are more likely to get hits for both topics if you separate them and focus on marketing each keyword to the search engine crawlers with its own distinct web page.