On page unstructured keywords, yay or nay?

[d3mon187]

Ok, I could use some opinions on a dilemma I have. I have a business directory much like Yelp, and for each business I have unstructured keywords that might look like:

Maid Service, House Cleaning Service, Move out and Move in Cleaning Services, Post Party Cleaning, Event Clean Up

or

Transmission Repair, Auto Repair, Fleet Service, Auto Repair Shop, Mechanic, Brake Shop, Oil Change Service, Auto Tune Up Service, Transmission Shop, Engine Rebuilding Service, Radiator Repair Service, Alternators, Batteries, Transmission Rebuilding, Manual Transmissions, Automatic Transmissions, Tranny repair, transmission maintenance, differentials, rear ends, brake repair, break shop, oil change, flywells, standard Transmission, Automatic transmission, Electrical Diagnostics, Scan Check Engine Light, Computer Diagnostics

Most of the time they contain valuable words, but it's still just a list of words. I put them in a list at the bottom of the page, and label them as keywords. Users can edit and change them, so it's not unwelcome for them to see them visibly. When I originally included them, I likened them to most blogs which have a list of tags for the article. Unfortunately, I can't link them, so I'm wondering if Google just sees them as footer spam text. Do you guys think they're ok, or should I move them to meta keywords?

Thanks!

[goodroi]

What else is on the page? If it is just a company name, street address and these keywords you are probably not going to be happy.

[d3mon187]

Again, it varies. At the very least, it's company name, street address, phone number, neighborhoods, similar nearby businesses, and a map. More typically, there are also some blurbs about the business, hours, links to the website, etc., and then pages with lots of unstructured keywords usually also have products sold, services provided, stuff like that. Not unlike Yelp, but minus the benefit of a ton of review text since the site is new.

[Planet13]

I would get rid of the keywords as quickly as possible, if it were me.

Ever shop on laigscrist?

I hate it when you are looking for a particular item and search results return a bunch of listings that have NOTHING to do with the item I want, but the person who put up the ad thought it would be a good idea to list KEYWORDS: followed by a bunch of unrelated keywords

Anyway, I don't know if your keywords are searchable or not, but aside from probably looking like spam to most search engines, it also looks incredibly Bush League to users.

BTW: The only thing I hate more than "keywords" and giant popups is those "answer" sites that rank in google despite the fact that they only have questions that were scraped from the internets without any answers. Ugh...

[frankleeceo]

When the site is small with small number of entries, they might be ok. You might actually receive some temporary traffic boost as google is trying to figure out what those pages really are. The traffic will last small from a couple of days to 1~2 weeks or longer, then your site will be put into oblivion, question is when.

As you grow your listings and content history, you will run into duplicate content issues with repeated keywords on multiple pages. Also very very high risk of being labeled as spam as you scale up later with just minimal contact info like @goodroi mentioned. This is multiplied when you have very little content outside of the keywords.

If you actually use automated keyword tagging system, you are almost 100% will be labeled as spam sooner or later with entire site wipeout, just a matter of time. I rarely see blogs or sites actually rank for their keyword tagging system.

You will have to pad them with more information like...video from the service, reviews, etc.

In short...any kind of keyword tagging will be viewed as spam once you hit that certain magical threshold. (I would personally rate the second list you started the thread with as spam, especially once you apply that list to 3 business contact pages). If you really want to do it, I would limit it to 5~10 entries, make them different, mark them as "business specialties. And you probably want to do related long tail type searches. No one really knows the magical number until they get labeled as spam.

Nowadays you will have to work those keywords into content, more or less a sales copy.

[FranticFish]

Unfortunately, I can't link them

I think that would probably be worse. I ran a niche directory a way back that was fairly successful and the kicker was original content.

As frankleeceo says, my experience was that you'll hit a threshold once you grow beyond the size normally associated with a single business website.

So ditch anything generic (bullet point lists of services to pick that apply etc) and make your business owners INVEST in their listing (and if you generate the listing then call the business concerned, talk to the owner and put together the listing with them on the phone). You'll get all sorts of insight and ideas into the niche, a genuinely relevant and unique listing text, and contact established to monetise membership when you upgrade the directory from free to all to freemium :)

[d3mon187]

Thanks guys. I removed them entirely from the page. Seems a pity since I would think they might help Google's search, but you guys are probably right in thinking they're probably just hurting me. Doesn't look like Google or Bing use meta keywords either, so I'll just leave them out altogether. They are still in the back end code for users to add/change, just not on the page. I do use them for my built in search engine, since they can help when a user searches for a keyword like "doctor" when the category is technically "physician". I've got 13+ million listings, and Google was loving them at first, but recently took a sharp decline, so I'll probably have to wait a while to see a recovery. Oh well! Thanks again for the replies!

[FranticFish]

At 13,000,000 listings I think you're on a rather different business model than I was when I ran a directory so I doubt my advice has much application :)

[TheMadScientist]

Doesn't look like Google or Bing use meta keywords either, so I'll just leave them out altogether.

No major SE has used them in a long time, except as possibly a negative if the tag is stuffed, so if you need them "in house" to provide results, then I think you're going in the right direction, but I certainly wouldn't/don't think they "count as a positive" in rankings, because they're *way* too easy to manipulate.