The correct number of meta keywords for SEO is zero, because Google does not use the meta keywords tag for ranking or indexing at all. Google's Search Central blog confirmed this on September 21, 2009, and the guidance has never changed since. If you have seen advice recommending 5 or 10 keywords in the tag, that number comes from spam-avoidance habits from the 1990s, not from anything that helps a page rank today.
None, if the goal is ranking on Google. The meta keywords tag, written as <meta name="keywords" content="...">, has no effect on how Google crawls, indexes, or ranks a page. Google's own developer documentation states plainly that the tag "is not used by Google Search" and has no bearing on search results, so there is no count of keywords, short list or long list, that improves your visibility.
This surprises people who remember older SEO checklists that recommended a specific range, often 5 to 10 comma-separated terms. That advice was never really about ranking better. It was about avoiding the look of keyword stuffing back when a small number of engines still glanced at the tag, and it stuck around in outdated guides long after the underlying reason for it disappeared.
The meta keywords tag is a line of HTML placed in a page's <head> section that lists terms the page owner wants associated with that page, separated by commas. It sits alongside other metadata like the title tag and meta description, but unlike those two, it is entirely invisible: no browser displays it, and no search result shows it. A visitor reading the page would never know the tag existed unless they opened the page source.
In practice, a meta keywords tag might look like this: <meta name="keywords" content="running shoes, marathon training, trail shoes">. The tag was designed to let a page owner state its topic directly to a crawler, cutting out the need for the crawler to infer the subject from the visible content alone.
Google stopped giving the meta keywords tag any weight because site owners abused it faster than search engines could trust it. In the mid to late 1990s, early search engines did read the tag to help classify a page's topic, but that openness became a liability almost immediately: page owners crammed the tag with hundreds of unrelated, high-traffic, or even competitor terms purely to game rankings, with no visible penalty since the tag was invisible to readers.
By the time Google launched in 1998, the tag was already unreliable as a signal, and Google gave it little to no weight from the start. Google made that position explicit years later: on September 21, 2009, Google's Search Central blog published a post titled "Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking," stating the company disregards the tag completely and had done so for years already. Yahoo confirmed around the same time that it had stopped supporting the tag as well.
No, and this has not changed in the years since the original 2009 announcement. Google's Search Advocate John Mueller has reconfirmed the same position in public forums multiple times, most recently reiterating that the meta keywords tag is not a ranking factor and has no effect on indexing. Adding it, removing it, filling it with ten terms, or filling it with a hundred makes no measurable difference to how your page performs in Google Search.
It is worth being precise about what "no effect" means here. It is not that the tag is weighed lightly, or only helps on certain page types. Google's crawlers do not use the content of the tag as an input to ranking or indexing decisions at all. The tag can exist in your page's HTML purely as inert text that nobody, human or machine, ever acts on.
No major search engine uses the meta keywords tag as a positive ranking signal today. Bing's own webmaster guidance has described the tag as dead for SEO purposes, and while Bing has acknowledged that an obviously spammy, over-stuffed keywords tag could theoretically factor into spam detection, that is a defensive signal, not something that helps a legitimate page rank higher.
Some SEOs still fill in the tag for regional search engines outside the Google and Bing ecosystem, such as Yandex or Baidu, since those platforms have given mixed or less transparent signals about the tag over the years. If your traffic comes primarily from Google, which covers the overwhelming majority of global search volume, that edge case does not apply to you.
Redirect the time you would have spent on meta keywords into the title tag and meta description, since both of those still shape what a searcher sees and whether they click. Your primary keyword belongs in the title tag, ideally near the front, because Google uses the title tag directly as a strong relevance and display signal. Our guide on title tag best practices for SEO covers the specific length and placement rules.
The meta description deserves the same care. It is not a ranking factor either, but it is visible in the search snippet and shapes click-through rate, which Google does track as a real signal of relevance over time. For the exact distinction between the two dead-versus-alive tags, our guide on meta description vs meta keywords breaks down what each tag actually does. Length matters too: our guide on how long a meta description should be covers the exact character and pixel limits Google applies before truncating your snippet.
Beyond the tags themselves, the biggest lever is still the visible content of the page. Google reads the words your visitors read, so working your target keyword and its natural variants into headings and body copy does far more for rankings than any hidden tag ever could. If duplicate or thin descriptions are also part of your problem, our guide on duplicate meta descriptions explains when that actually costs you clicks versus when it is a non-issue.
You can remove it safely, and doing so has no downside for Google or Bing rankings. Most modern content platforms, including current versions of WordPress and Shopify, no longer generate a meta keywords field by default, which reflects how little practical use is left in it. If your site is on an older template that still outputs the tag automatically, removing it is a minor cleanup task rather than an SEO priority.
There are a couple of narrow, legitimate exceptions worth knowing about. Some platforms repurpose a keywords-style field for internal site search rather than external SEO, which is a genuinely different use case with no connection to Google rankings. And as covered above, a small number of sites still populate it for regional search engines that have not given the same clear, public confirmation that Google and Bing have. Outside of those specific cases, leave the field blank and spend the time on your title tag and meta description instead.
How many meta keywords should I use for SEO? Zero for Google. The meta keywords tag has no effect on rankings or indexing, confirmed by Google Search Central in 2009 and reconfirmed since, so there is no correct number to aim for. Older guides that recommend 5 to 10 keywords are describing a spam-avoidance habit from the 1990s, not a working SEO tactic.
Does Google use the meta keywords tag as a ranking factor? No. Google's Search Central blog stated on September 21, 2009 that it disregards the keywords meta tag completely for web ranking, and Google's own developer documentation still states the tag has no effect on indexing or ranking at all today.
Why did search engines stop using meta keywords? Site owners abused the tag in the late 1990s by stuffing it with hundreds of irrelevant or competitor terms to manipulate rankings. Once the tag became unreliable as a signal of what a page was actually about, search engines dropped it rather than try to police it.
Does Bing or any other search engine use meta keywords? No major search engine treats the meta keywords tag as a positive ranking signal. Bing's own webmaster guidance has called the tag dead for SEO value, though Bing has said an excessive or spammy keywords tag can occasionally feed into spam detection rather than ranking.
Should I remove the meta keywords tag from my website? You can remove it with zero downside, and most modern CMS platforms like WordPress and Shopify no longer generate the field by default. Leaving an old, unused meta keywords tag in place does not hurt you either, since Google simply ignores it, but removing it keeps your page source cleaner.
What should I focus on instead of meta keywords? Put that effort into your title tag and meta description, since both still influence what Google shows in search results and how likely someone is to click. Strong on-page content that directly answers the query matters far more than any hidden tag ever did.
Are there any legitimate uses left for the meta keywords tag? A small number of platforms use it for internal site search rather than external SEO, and a handful of SEOs still fill it in for regional search engines such as Yandex or Baidu that have given mixed signals about the tag over the years. For a site targeting Google or Bing, it has no practical use.
Did Google ever use meta keywords for ranking? In the mid-1990s, early search engines including some precursors to modern search did read meta keyword tags to help classify a page's topic. Google specifically has stated it never gave the tag significant weight even in its early years, precisely because the tag was already being abused by the time Google launched in 1998.
Can adding too many meta keywords hurt my SEO? Not through Google, since the tag is ignored outright. In rare cases an excessive, obviously spammy keywords tag could be one small signal search engines fold into broader spam detection, but no credible source ties it to a direct ranking penalty on its own.
How is the meta keywords tag different from the meta description tag? The meta keywords tag is hidden in the page's HTML and has no effect on rankings or what Google displays. The meta description is often shown directly under your title in search results and can influence click-through rate, which makes it worth writing carefully even though it is not a direct ranking factor either.
Stop treating the meta keywords tag as a task on your SEO checklist. If it is still on your pages, leave it or delete it, either is fine, and move that attention to your title tags and meta descriptions, which are the metadata that actually shapes how you show up in search. For the full picture of how these tags fit together with slugs and page structure, our guide on what metadata means in SEO ties the pieces together. If you want a second set of eyes on which of your pages have weak titles or descriptions instead of a dead tag, request a free SEO audit from Rankite and we will show you exactly what to fix first.
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