Does Yahoo Search Engine use the keywords meta tag in its guidelines for webmasters?
I wanted to see what Yahoo had got in the way of guidelines for webmasters, to do well in the Yahoo Search Engine and whether the meta tag keyword was still in use in its directory.
”Use a “keyword” meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.”
So according to Yahoo, they recommend webmasters to use the keyword meta tag
<meta name=”keywords” content=”KEYWORDS GO HERE”>
They might say that, but do they actually use it as one of their criteria for their algorithms when producing search results? That however is another question.
How are web documents ranked?
“When you search on Yahoo!, our search engine instantly searches and sorts billions of web documents, makes a decision on each one’s comparative relevancy to your search query, and offers these web pages as ranked results. Search engines don’t have the ability to ask questions, so they rely on the search terms you enter to interpret and determine the intent of your search.
Yahoo! Search ranks results according to their relevance to a particular query by analyzing the web page text, title and description accuracy as well as its source, associated links, and other unique document characteristics.”
Not exactly a specific answer but as near as we can get. The last question to ask is:
Will using the meta keyword tag harm my website in any way if I use it?
The answer there is yes and no. There might be an algorithm to count in meta keywords on Yahoo as part of the relevance or there might not be. Including it as a guideline in Yahoo Help certainly suggests that might be so. Either way, is there an algorithm for excessive over use of the meta keyword tag? We don’t know.
Conclusion
- Use the meta keyword tag but keep it to a respectable 150 keywords or keyword phrases. Present like so: keyword,keyword keyword, keyword etc
- Make sure the keywords or keyword phrases you are using are actually within the page the keyword meta tag is on
- Lastly use different relevant keywords for EACH page of the website
Read the Yahoo webmaster guidelines indepth for more suggestions on what Yahoo Search Engine wants for a site to rank well. Be advised that what you do for one search engine might affect another, however your main point of reference should always be your end user, the person that visits your site.