Via the Google Webmaster Tools blog (with accompanying YouTube video), Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed what many in the SEO community have known for quite some time: Google doesn’t use the meta keywords tag in their rankings.
Q: Does Google ever use the “keywords” meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has the ability to match meta tags, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that’s an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at present.Q: Why doesn’t Google use the keywords meta tag?
A: About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called “off-page” factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.
While left as almost an afterthought (and probably should have been highlighted a bit more), Cutts also confirms that the meta description tag also does not influence the Google search results.
Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don’t use the description meta tag in our ranking.
Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking (Official Google Webmaster Tools Blog)
Google: Stop Suing Over The Keywords Tag, We Don’t Use It (Search Engine Land)
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
You’re getting ready to launch a new search marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a paid or organic search campaign. The seeds of success for your campaign are planted with keyword research.
Lots and lots of keyword research.
Inevitably, you’ll have to create extensive lists of keywords to analyze and review.
Today, Fathom SEO is proud to release a new tool to help you create those massive lists more quickly:
the KEYWORD MIXER!
The Keyword Mixer allows you to quickly generate 100s and even thousands of keyword variations by entering in a few options and some lists of words to mix.
Let’s say, for example, you run a site that sells bargain watches and bracelets in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
First, you could compile a list of location-specific terms. We’ll keep it simple, but obviously there are dozens of options. Let’s say our list is:
• Cleveland
• Northeast Ohio
• Ohio
• Cleveland area
• Cleveland Ohio
Secondly, you can create a list of adjectives to describe your products. Let’s again limit it to five:
• inexpensive
• bargain
• reasonably priced
• high-quality
• cheap
Next, add your nouns. These are usually your products or services themselves. Again, we’ll limit it to 5. I’m keeping them singular, because as we’ll see in a moment, the tool has the ability to create plurals. Our list will be:
• watch
• bracelet
• wristwatch
• pocket watch
• rolex watch
You’ll enter these in the appropriate fields.
Next, you can select your mixing options, and select the various ways to mix up your keywords. Currently, there are five options available, and they’re pretty self-explanatory.
Lastly, you can choose whether or not to allow the mixer to try and create plurals. You can see the rules it will try to apply. Be warned that this is just a tool and can’t handle all of the intricacies of the English language, but it will do a good job with most regular nouns.
If we selected all options for our 5 X 5 X 5 lists, and then hit the MIX button, you’ll see that the Keyword Mixer quickly generates 650 viable variations on these keywords.
It’s easy to see how the Keyword Mixer can quickly generate thousands upon thousands of keywords for you.
We hope you use and enjoy this free keyword research tool. We look forward to adding features for you sporadically, so we welcome your comments and suggestions.
1 Comment »Is your YouTube content usable? A new article from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox outlines some compelling reasons NOT to participate in social networking sites. Research behind “Social Media Outsourcing Can Be Risky” makes the case that:
1. Usability can be harmed. In the article’s YouTube examples, inappropriate image thumbnail choices, repetitive features, and poor organization are all culprits. It argues the broader point that the particular interfaces of social network sites may not serve your own site’s users in the way that’s best for them.
2. Your own users are being trained to go elsewhere for your content. Just as with search engines, the biggest social networking sites win out while your own site is the three-legged dog when users search for engaging or informative content.
The larger argument about the superiority of engaging users on your own website vs. more popular external sites (i.e., social networking sites) is a debatable point, but the idea is worth exploring. After all, website owners can probably all agree that they would ultimately rather see traffic on their own site than on a YouTube page.
What if you still want to use YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, et al.?
Nielsen recommends that you pay attention to the organization and categorization of your content. Using the default templates is NOT the way to go, so customize, customize, customize. Don’t expect that your video will get a million views. In fact, according to a recent study by Slate technology writer Chris Wilson, the odds of your video getting even 1,000 views on YouTube in a month’s time are 3 percent. Think about usability by writing good titles, descriptions and tags, which can also reap keyword-specific SEO benefits. I would also consider Google’s ranking factors for videos.
For Twitter, I would recommend reading C.G. Lynch’s “Twitter: How to Get Started Guide for Business People.” For Facebook, Rae Hoffman’s (Sugarrae) beginner’s guide to using it is the best.
Last but not least, being mindful of usability should not prohibit tapping into the power of Internet video or Twitter or Facebook. Just be smart and consider the context.
Photo courtesy of twodolla via Flickr.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »Achieve Email Success with Database Segmentation
Are you ready to take your email marketing program to the next level by driving high-quality opens, clicks, leads? Start segmenting you database. While the process can take time to fully implement, the results you can achieve by doing so will be well worth the wait. Get started today by following these easy steps…
Getting To Know Your Visitors in Google Analytics
Last month in the Fathom SEO Newswire we looked at establishing goals in Google Analytics. Goals are a great way to measure how well your website is converting your visitors to a desired action. This month, let’s look at visitor information available “out of the box” that requires no customization.
Google Caffeine Search Update Is Promising
Will Google Caffeine be a delectable treat or an erratic search sensation? I’m thinking we’ll like Google’s new dish – in time. Google has too much at stake to make a mess of things. Last month, Google called its new index infrastructure a “secret project” (or at least it was a secret) that will be the “next-generation architecture for Google’s web search.”
Fathom SEO Uses Omniture Search Center to Boost Clients’ ROI
As many of our lucky clients already know, we use Omniture Search Center in combination with Fathom Call Tracking. This gives our clients the best pay-per-click reporting with real-time 24/7 statistics. In addition, it gives us the tools we need to efficiently and effectively squeeze the most of out every marketing dollar.
Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead at Google, recently covered some frequently asked questions regarding Google News, including News Sitemaps and PageRank.
Other items Maile covers include:
- Google News ranking factors
- Importance of “grouping”
- How Google crawls your news site
- Naming your news organization
Tips for News Search (Google Webmaster Central Blog)
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
