By openly listing your target keywords, you are inviting competitors to see your online marketing strategy and beat you to the punch.<\/strong><\/p>\nFor example, let\u2019s consider Siemens Healthineers, a company that specializes in products for healthcare providers. On their\u00a0USA homepage, you will find the following meta keywords:<\/p>\n
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Siemens Healthineers wants to show up in Google searches for terms like \u2018medical expertise\u2019. Who would Google something like that? Answer: Doctors and hospitals \u2013 who happen to be Siemens\u2019 target customers. So that is a pretty good SEO strategy. The problem is that, by broadcasting this information publicly, Siemens may have weakened its strategy. For example, competitors like GE can look at this information as a roadmap for planning their own SEO strategy.\u00a0GE can make it so that, when someone searches for \u2018medical expertise\u2019, their website also shows up alongside Siemens\u2019 \u2013 maybe even higher up on the search results page!<\/strong><\/p>\nThis is especially relevant for a new business or small business. Let\u2019s say that you recently dedicated significant resources to identifying the perfect keywords for your SEO strategy (including a few that none of your competitors are aware of). Then, you list them as meta keywords on your site. You may have just given your strategy away to a larger, more established competitor who can now beat you to the finish line before you even get off the starting blocks.<\/p>\n
Stop spying on\u00a0yourself<\/em>\u00a0for your competitors. Stop using meta keywords.<\/p>\n<\/span>Wait, so I shouldn\u2019t use meta tags or keywords?<\/span><\/h2>\nThis confuses a lot of people.<\/p>\n
Meta keywords are NOT the only\u00a0meta tags<\/strong>\u00a0for websites. There are plenty of others that you SHOULD be using. One example is the \u2018description\u2019 meta tag, which produces that little blurb you see on the Google search results page. A well-written description can be the difference between someone clicking on your page or moving on to a competitor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Meta keywords are also DIFFERENT from\u00a0keywords in general<\/strong>, which are the backbone of search engine optimization. You SHOULD use strategic keywords in your page titles, content, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta keywords are nearly extinct in 2018 but can still be found on some older websites that haven\u2019t been updated in a while. Learn whether you should use them on YOUR website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Should I Use Meta Keywords on My Website? | Zak & Zu Marketing<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n