Webmaster Tools Keywords is out of synch with my site

[kmayer]

Greetings,

In looking at Google Webmaster Tools Keywords section, the keywords Google feels my site is about vs. the content of the site are not in synch. Should I be worried about this (I am), and how should I trouble shoot? Thanks for any guideance.

[tedster]

It's often a sign that the site is sending weak relevance signals on key pages. I worked with one site that was really off in this way, even though it belonged to a major brand. But their top menu was kind of generic, they were really skittish about using anything beyond generic marketing-speak in the copy, and often their big keywords were in image text - without matching alt attributes.

First I'd check where those out of synch keywords appear on your site - and try to deemphasize them where you can. Then list the words that you feel are more of a match. Double check the main ones to see if they are prominently featured on the key pages - in high value semantic areas such as the title, h elements, main template navigation, anchor text for key links and so on.

[kmayer]

Thanks Tedster. As usual, great advice from you.