Thanks For Clearing Up that Metatags Thing, Google

I’ve thought this for some time (based on writings by some SEO guys I respect) but until now it’s been an educated guess that meta tags (specifically, the keyword tag) exhibit no influence upon Google’s ranking of a page. So I must say thanks, Google, for making it clear to all of us who care. Meta tags are not an all-important piece of SEO.

The headline of a recent Webmaster Central blog entry should say it all: “Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking“. But if you want to know more, you can read or watch Matt Cutts elaborate further.

Now, another minor point: it might not be a total waste of time to at least fill in a few keywords. I say this because of the Bing webmaster blog taking a somewhat neutral position on meta keywords. It makes me think that perhaps Bing “pays attention” to the meta keywords, at best. But I don’t see it as any sort of actual ranking factor whatsoever.

Update: I found this excellent and balanced perspective on the meta tags issue by John Andrews. I recommend it highly.