Meta keywords 'do not help with SEO'

14:00 14th June 2010

Digital marketing professionals who are carrying out a search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign have been advised by an industry expert not to use meta keywords.

According to Stephan Spencer, this is because they do not have any effect on the outcome of an SEO campaign.

Writing for Search Engine Land, Mr Spencer explained that keyword stuffing is also not advisable for those who want to improve the ranking of their site in search engine results pages.

"Don't go overboard with repeating keywords or adding a meta keywords tag that's hundreds of words long," he said.

Mr Spencer added that digital marketers should also ensure that the text they place on a website makes sense.

He said: "Crafting pages filled with nonsensical, keyword-rich gibberish is a great way to get penalised or banned by search engines."

Other tips issued by the SEO expert to those who want to improve the success of their digital marketing strategies included not relying on graphics on a website, because text is a far better way to improve ranking in search engine results pages.

In a previous article for the site, Mr Spencer told digital marketers that SEO campaigns should be used in conjunction with social media marketing tactics.