Keyword Tags

The keyword tag is the first tag I ever learned about when I began toying with search engine optimization back in 1999.

At that time, it was pretty easy to stuff a whole ton of keywords into any page, and AltaVista would have you ranking for that phrase soon, sometimes within the hour.

I admit, and plead guilty to the old-school crime of keyword stuffing, and I can remember adding HUNDREDS of keywords in certain pages, and doing it as late as 2003.

As time wore on, Google wised up to the use of “keyword stuffing” and savvy SEO’s all over the world stopped that spamtastic practice.

Several years ago, Google announced what a lot of people already suspected, which was that they do not factor the keyword meta-tag into the search ranking algorithm.

The SEO gurus declared loudly that the “keyword tag is dead”, and “don’t waste your time” but I personally have never stopped using them, and instead, just refined them to be more precise, and cut down the volume drastically.

My logic was simple – If they can penalize you for stuffing your keyword tags, then they are obviously looking and indexing them, so why not simply make them relevant?

To this day, even though the vast majority of SEO experts around the world claim that they are a waste of time, I still do try to implement a phrase or two in every post or page I write.

My basic rules of thumb for the keyword meta-tag are these:

1. Use a least a couple on every page
2. Don’t use more than eight on any page
3. Don’t use the identical batch, listed in the same order, on any two pages.
4. Don’t spend more than 10 seconds thinking about it.

To be clear, I am *not* saying that having keyword tags will make you rank better. What I AM saying is that their proper use, it certainly cannot hurt you.

With “tagging” becoming so prevalent in the world of social networks, and since they’re requested anywhere you’re ever asked to upload photos or videos, and they’re useful for general organization of information, it makes sense to me to continue to use relevant keyword tags wherever appropriate. Besides, as often as the algorithms seem to change, who’s to say they won’t come back into fashion?

Do you want to have to go back through dozens or hundreds of pages and add some keyword tags with the hopes of improving your rankings?

So, even though my opinion is not a popular one, I say spend 10 to 15 seconds popping in at least couple of keywords into every page you create, and you’ll be better off for it.