Is keyword tags totally irrelvant ? will it harm me if I fill it ?

[iCyborg]

I am not new to SEO but still this thing have confuses me and I need a response from someone who can confirm this.

1. Is it worth my time to fill the keyword tags ?
2. Will filling keywords <snip> cause me more problem than to NOT have keywords tags at all ? I am pretty convinced that google has flags for such type of content.

Cheers

[edited by: caveman at 3:56 pm (utc) on Oct. 22, 2008]
[edit reason] Please, no specifics. [/edit]

[SEOMike]

If used conservatively a the keywords meta is just fine. Alone it won't have any impact on your positioning but it can help search engines solidify their opinions about your page / site theme. Don't stuff it full of keywords. Keep it relevant and only use keywords once.

[iCyborg]

Mike are you saying this from some kind of experience/test or is that a generic opinion ? :)

[g1smd]

I haven't used the keywords meta tag for quite a few years now.

It isn't blank, it's not there at all.

[caveman]

I do believe that there are a few reasons why a very well crafted kw tags can help overall rankings, but the benefits are so minor compared to the effort that I'm with g1smd. Haven't added them to new pages in years now, and in almost all cases, advise clients to get rid of them because most of the time they do more harm than good.

[ashanka]

Hello,

I tried meta keywords some years back, but they didn't make any changes in the ranking.

Now I don't use them at all, but still managed to pull first page ranks, because of change in strategy.

But this doesn't mean that they worked / didn't work.

This is for sure they don't do any harm, but are not useful for gaining ranks.