Google doesn’t use the Keyword Meta Tag in Rankings

Finally we heard it from the horse’s mouth! Matt Cutts explains that Google does not use the keyword meta tag to determine ranking anymore in their core search results.

You may still use the keyword tag for other search engines (yes, there are others besides Google) and maybe also to list common misspellings of words or phrases. The keyword meta tag doesn’t hurt your site, but please don’t use it to overstuff unrelated keywords into a page, regardless if Google uses it or not. Just use your common sense here – if it adds value, use it. If it doesn’t make sense (for any search engine), don’t do it – simple! We generally only list 4-6 keyword phrases pertaining to the page content in the keyword meta tag- takes one minute.