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Website Keyword Myths and Facts

July 30, 2024
a tablet showing Google

One of the “fun” parts of website ownership is spam, usually from people trying to sell you website services. And usually it’s for SEO services.

I had a client get just such an email a while ago. It was a company touting SEO services that had built a report for my client’s website. I usually ignore these but I decided to take a look at their report this time.

The first item on the report told me that they had no idea what they were doing.

In this report, they claimed that my client needs to use keyword meta tags.

Wrong.

Google stopped using those in 2009. Most of the other search engines either get their results from Google, or copy what Google does. And really, how many people use the other search engines other than Google? From what I can tell, all of 2 search engines use meta keywords and one is Russian and one is Chinese. So unless you are targeting those search engines, don’t waste time with keyword meta tags.

Anyone telling you that you need meta tag keywords on your site is clueless.

That said, you DO need keywords on your website. They are very important. And these are not special keywords in your code (such as the keyword meta tags) but are the keywords on your pages, viewable by humans.

If you aren’t ranking for certain keywords, are those keywords on any page on your website? If not, you won’t rank. For example, if you are in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex like me, and want to show up in searches for specific towns, you need the names of those towns on a page on your site. Without the names of those towns, you’re not going to show up in a search by a potential customer.

Once you start thinking about all the words you don’t have on your website, you’re going to need to rewrite your content. That said, narrow down your keyword list and don’t try to rank for 50 different keywords (unless you actually have 50 different unique products such as t-shirts, mugs, bags, and more).

You just need a few keywords that are relevant to your products or services, and any locations you want to cover. You don’t need to turn your website content into something nonsensical and wordy as you try and cover every conceivable keyword out there. Also, don’t focus on keywords that are only vaguely related to what you do. You want words that are very specific to what you do.

There is always someone that asks, “can I just put a list of keywords on my page and make them the same color as the background so no one can see them?”

I recommend against it. Google knows this trick and will remove you from their directory when they catch you (and they will). This trick is one of the things that are a part of Black Hat SEO. Yes, just like in the Westerns. Stick with White Hat SEO and you’ll go further.

Keywords on the page are very important, but only one of many things that need to be done to improve website rankings. Need more SEO work done on your website? Get in touch! I can help! Just want to ask a few questions about SEO? Feel free!

Hi! My name is Janice Schwarz and I’ve been making websites professionally for 25 years. Follow my Facebook page to see more helpful blog posts for website owners and marketers.

I am partnering with DesignRush to list in their Texas web design companies directory.

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