MetaTags - Keyword or Keyword Phrases?

At the moment I'm using phrases, for example "general discussion forum, general discussion forums...etc", and thus far the results have been decent.

However, I'm wondering if it's a better idea to go with individual keywords rather than the phrases themselves? Any idea on this guys/gals?

 

What did you use to run this report? This is very interesting stuff

 

It doesn't look fine to me. It looks like what Google would consider to be keyword stuffing.

 

It certainly isn't going to go down well in Google's book.

 

Yeah, I do not have personal experience with meta tags because I do not use them, even though I should. Since reading this, I think I will add meta tags to my phpBB forum. What guidelines should I follow when creating meta tags?

 

Really, nobody needs to uses them any more because, other than the title tag, they are universally ignored in terms of any major search engines. Having none is not a handicap. Having spammy ones definitely is a handicap. If you're unsure, omit them.

 

Bing doesn't pay any attention to meta keyword tags either. And the meta description tag is used only for search results snippets - both Google and Bing will override the description tag for something that they feel is more appropriate, and if yours is spammy you can be fairly confident they'll ignore it so it will never see the light of day. Meta description tags are not a factor in ranking.

That doesn't mean they don't look at keyword stuffing from other tags as determinants of "authority" and "quality".

Please tell us one major search engine that pays any attention to anything but the title tag (and of course author and canonical tags).

 

My point about the meta keywords tag is that it won't help you but it can hurt you.

Google ranking factors these days are all about relevance, quality, and authority. Anything you do that detracts from ANY of those factors, whether or not Google actually uses them for ranking, can hurt you - hence my comment that you are better to omit it entirely than to insert a spammy one.

And again, I would respond, name one.

 

To be honest, looking at those phrases you to have a diverse amount of words. You have a lot of phrases there than I would normally put myself but at least yours are about different topics and not all the same variations.

Even though Meta Tags and Keywords are apparently not used anymore, I always ensure they are included in my sites... just incase

 

If hardly anyone uses META tags anymore, what purpose does it serve to add them?

 

Add:

1. Title tag
2. meta description tag (non-spammy) - not used in ranking but may be used as search engine results snippet if accurate and not keyword stuffed
3. certain additional tags like author tags and canonical tags if desired

Omit anything else. All it does is add to page bulk.

 

I prefer to add only keywords in first instance and only if it's relevant to the site or the content add a few phrases, but never exceeding 3 or 4 words because certainly adding only long-tail keywords and complex phrases can be assumed as keyword stuffing and having Google (and other search engines) penalizing you in no time.

Moreover, if your keyword phrases are irrelevant to your content, your visitors can feel disappointed and never return again thinking yours is a spammy website.

 

See Keyword Stuffing & Hidden Text Manual Action: Google on How to Fix it

 

Surely a lot of the not well known Search Engines still use them?
I would keep my keywords on just Incase an uncommon engine has me listed. Even though it probably won't send much traffic it's still worth it in my opinion!