I wrote an article as a response to a friend’s question. He was asking about the importance of the keyword Meta tag and the strategy that goes into selecting terms. This is a question I get asked quite a bit, and though it best to provide an in-depth response.

Question:

For the HTML coding piece, do you believe in tons of keywords, or a few targeted?

Considering SEO …. Masseys Shoes:

Example 1:
Keywords: Masseys.com, masseys shoes, womans shoes, womens, shoes

Example 2:
Keywords: masseys.com, masseys shoes, womans shoes, mens shoes, kids shoes, elegant shoes, work shoes, walking shoes, masseys.com, white shoes, black shoes, nike shoes, reebok shoes, big shoes, small shoes, cheap shoes, discount shoes, low price shoes, blah blah blah.

Keyword Meta Tag:

Quick Answer: 2-3 Keywords per Page & Highly Targeted

The keyword meta tag holds little to no weight in the top 3 search engines. This is due to keyword stuffing, as well as improvements in algorithmic content parsing. The search engines would rather pull out keywords from available text that they consider to be the theme of the page, then to trust webmasters.

I still use the keyword Meta tag for a few reasons. It helps me keep my sites/ pages organized, and remind me what the page is strategically targeting. I say strategic because a lot of keyword and competitive research goes into my keyword selection and order. Also, its best practices for web development and search engine optimization to include the tag. Another thing people forget is that many of the search engines accounting for the remaining 10% of market share still use the old methods of indexing.

There are, however, people that believe you should omit the keyword tag all together. Believing it’s a blueprint of your strategy visible to all competitors. The thought is that Google, Yahoo and MSN don’t use the tag, so forget it. The issue is just omitting the tag doesn’t make your keywords invisible to competitors. A well optimized page will have the main keywords in the title and headers, not to mention it will be the theme of the content!

Bottom Line: You could go with either example, as the tag has little relevance, but the first with 2-3 keywords is best practices! Stay relevant to the content on each page. Higher level pages with multiple products should target broad keywords ‘women’s shoes’, and deeper pages should focus on specific/ long-tail terms ‘black work shoes’.

Keyword Strategy:

You already have ‘womens shoes’ as your third keyword. You don’t need to split the term and add it again, unless you meant to misspell it. Order them based on estimated searches and competition. This is more for your memory, than the search engines!

My keyword tag would be: “women’s shoes,womans shoes,masseys shoes”

Changes:

1) Removed spaces after commas, personal choice from array formatting.
2) Added keyword with apostrophe. It has 3x more searches, with 1/3 the competition.
3) Included misspelling as a reminder of its strength and relevance. (Optional)
4) Removed the .com due to its low search volume!

Although the .com is not in the keyword tag, you could still use it in the title and body copy. This holds true with apostrophe and non-apostrophe version of women’s shoes as well. A mention in the content with a few good links should be enough to rank for the vendors URL. However, I would focus your efforts on the targeted keywords that receive searches. Correctly building your theme will enable you to rank for many variations of the primary keyword, without explicitly declaring it. You could also provide a vendors/ brand page to highlight those less searched keywords.

Note: If you’re not selling Nike shoes, don’t include the keyword on your site. You’re not going to rank for it on the big three, and if you did visitors will bounce immediately due to your deception. If you do sell Nike, I would recommend creating a Nike product page and targeting the keyword there.