Does the keywords meta tag still hold any SEO value today?

Why did Google abandon this meta tag?

The keywords meta tag was heavily misused from its initial purpose as early as the 2000s. Webmasters stuffed this tag with hundreds of unrelated terms, making this signal completely useless for search engines.

Google officially announced its abandonment in 2009, but the practice had already been neutralized long before. Other search engines such as Bing or Yandex follow the same logic: they either completely ignore this tag or view it as a potential negative signal if filled with spam.

Does this tag pose a risk for SEO?

No, having a keywords meta tag on your pages does not result in any direct penalties. Google simply ignores it; it doesn't even read it in its semantic analysis process.

The only tangible risk is competitive: filling out this tag publicly exposes your keyword strategy. Your competitors can check the source code and identify the terms you are targeting. This gives away strategic information for free without any benefit in return.

Are there cases where this tag still serves a purpose?

Some internal search engines of sites (proprietary solutions, old CMS) still use this tag for indexing their content. This is marginal and mainly concerns intranets or closed platforms.

For the public web and major search engines, this tag has absolutely no usefulness. Even alternative Russian or Chinese engines have progressively abandoned this signal in light of its historically high manipulation rate.

• The meta keywords tag has had no impact on Google rankings since at least 2009
• No penalties are applied if the tag is present; it is simply ignored
• Filling out this tag exposes your semantic strategy to competitors without compensation
• Internal search engines of some sites may still utilize it in a closed loop
• It's better to invest this time in on-page optimizations with measurable impact

Does this statement match real-world observations?

Yes, without a doubt. For over fifteen years, no measurable correlation has been observed between the presence or content of this tag and organic positions. A/B tests conducted on thousands of pages consistently show a zero delta.

Professional SEO tools like Screaming Frog or OnCrawl have also removed this tag from their priority audit reports for years. It only appears in the 'technical information' sections without any associated recommendations.

Why do some CMS continue to offer this field?

Technical inertia and backward compatibility. Many WordPress, Joomla, or PrestaShop themes from before 2010 still retain this field in their administrative interfaces. Developers have never bothered to remove it since its presence is harmless.

Some SEO plugins also maintain this option for backward compatibility reasons: abruptly removing the field would cause errors in existing installations. The maintenance cost to remove it far exceeds any benefit, as its existence does not harm.

Should I actively remove this tag from existing pages?

No, this is not an operational priority. If your site already has this tag on thousands of pages, don’t waste time manually removing it. This technical effort will bring no measurable gain in visibility.

However, during a redesign or migration, take the opportunity to clean the template and avoid carrying this tag into the new architecture. This is a chance to lighten the source code and simplify future maintenance. Let’s be clear: removing this tag does not boost anything, but keeping it needlessly clutters your HTML.

What should I do if this tag is present on my site?

Nothing urgent. If your pages already have a keywords meta tag, you can leave it in place without fear of penalties. Google completely ignores it; it doesn’t slow down crawling or consume significant budget.

However, if you are launching a new project or redesigning your site, don’t implement it. Focus your development resources on impactful tags like Schema.org structured data, hreflang tags for multilingual content, or optimizing Core Web Vitals.

Where should I concentrate my on-page optimization efforts?

The title and meta description tags remain priorities: they directly influence click-through rates from SERPs and convey relevance signals. A well-optimized title can generate an additional 20 to 30 percent CTR on some competitive queries.

The structured Hn tags (unique H1, hierarchical H2-H3) facilitate semantic understanding by Googlebot and improve user experience. Well-structured content with relevant subheadings increases session time and reduces bounce rates, two behavioral metrics that are now integrated into the algorithm.

How can I verify that my template does not contain obsolete code?

Conduct a full crawl with Screaming Frog or Sitebulb and export the 'Meta Keywords' column. If hundreds of pages show up with this tag filled in, it means your CMS or theme automatically injects it. Identify the responsible template and disable this feature.

Take advantage of this audit to spot other technical remnants: obsolete meta tags, deprecated HTML attributes, dead tracking scripts. A clean source code speeds up rendering and simplifies crawler work. These technical optimizations may seem complex to orchestrate alone, especially on large sites or hybrid architectures: in this case, relying on a specialized SEO agency can provide personalized support and help avoid manipulation errors that could negatively impact your visibility.

• Do not implement the keywords meta tag on new projects or redesigns
• Do not waste time manually removing this tag from existing pages
• Reallocate optimization budget toward title, meta description, and Hn structure
• Audit the template to identify whether the CMS automatically injects this tag
• Clean the source code during migrations to avoid carrying over dead code
• Prioritize Schema.org, hreflang, and Core Web Vitals optimizations for measurable ROI