Does a second <meta keyword> element count?

[zozzen]

In my CMS, it will embed certain specific tags in <meta keyword> but i think these keywords aren't enough.

If I put two keyword lines together, does the second one count?
<meta name="keywords" content="GENERATED BY CMS" />
<meta name="keywords" content="MY OWN CHOICE" />

Thanks!

[tedster]

Sorry to tell you - even the first line of the meta keyword tag doesn't count. It's been that way for quite a few years, and not just with Google.

[eric1981]

tedster, i think meta tags sitll work.

i had a new site, and when i've done the on-page seo (meta tags, internal links, etc.), it gradually gains ranking in SERP. and before i started to build ex-links , some of my keywords came to page 1.

[MLHmptn]

Some meta tags do work (mainly description) but the meta KEYWORDS tags does not and the only other meta tag that I know works is for search engines to use your Yahoo Directory listing or DMOZ.

[FranticFish]

I've tested this recently with unique two word phrases in meta description and meta keywords tags. Google returned no results when searching for the unique phrase. They advise on quality of meta description in WMT but this is to encourage good snippets and good SERPs. I've not seen or read anything for years that indicates that meta data has even the slightest contributory effect on rankings.

[TheMadScientist]

@ FranticFish

Yeah, sounds right and shows just how difficult cause and effect is becoming for many to determine. I would say the description has indirect impact in G by helping generate clicks (or not) in the SERPs, but keywords in the major SEs are definitely out as a ranking foactor... This is not to say they could not have an impact in some other smaller SEs, but definitely not in G, Y and B. There's simply no need to use those as 'relevance indicators' any more when they can do a better job by figuring out what's on the page itself and what others say about the page.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Site owners keep keywords on their sites because they don't hurt anything but for years now they definitely don't help with rankings, they can't be trusted.

If one set doesn't help two isn't going to either, then again if one set isn't hurting two won't either, they are ignored.

I made a point of measuring effects on rankings by completely removing the keywords metatag on a site and noticed absolutely zero negative impact.

A fun use of the keywords metatag I ran into recently was an owner placing an anti scraping message as his keywords sitewide. The scraper sites and especially the seo reporting sites all showed a rather unflattering testament as to where they scraped the content from.

Add "ksahgksjdhgkshfklsadhfklasdhfklasdhflkashdfklas" as a keyword and in a month search for that string, you'll find quite a few scraper sites that way... many of them will even create a category out of the string, not that you should be wasting your time finding them.

[tedster]

On the positive side, a keyword meta tag can be a memory jog right there in the code - an easy reference for notes about what you hoped to rank for,

On the negative side, a keyword meta tag shows your competition exactly what your keyword research turned up. Since it doesn't help you rank anyway, I advise against using it. Why tip your cards so your competitor can read them?

[backdraft7]

@tedster - my competitor just scrapes my content using the same anchor text and verbage, so there's really nothing you can hide. He changes to words around and claims it as his own. Not much we can do about it.