Keyword Metatags As Good As Dead?
Check out the full story at the Google Webmaster Central Blog.
What Does This Mean? In a Word—Everything.
For many years, clients and developers have always wondered what Google uses and what Google doesn’t. This posting changes everything. For one of the first times, Google tips their hand slightly at their process. While this may not be news to many hard-core SEO’ers, for the average small business owner—this is huge.
If Google isn’t using keyword metatags, are they useful? Yes and no. Some search engines may still use the laundry list of words and names crammed into the head tag section of a website. However, more and more search engines look to the content, the header tags and alt tags in the site. With search engines focusing on headers and alt tags, solid content is more important than ever.
One of the quickest growing axioms of web development is: “If you want to improve your website, improve your writing.” There’s good reason for it—search engines look at your content for keywords, terminology and other critical elements in weighing the performance of your site. Sloppy writing, writing with too little (or too much) jargon, or under-developing your site’s content suddenly proves hazardous.
A great way to improve your site during construction or during a redevelopment is to bring on a web copywriter. Have him or her review the content for keywords usage, for appropriate use of headers and for effective use of image tagging. Take the additional time to lay out a strategy for site architecture and content. The minimal cost addition may mean head and shoulders improvement in organic SEO performance.