The Meta Keywords Tag Is Back, At Least For Google News

Sep 20, 2012 - 9:08 am 15 by

Everyone knows Google stopped using the meta keywords tag ages ago. They simply ignore it and because of that, many SEOs don't bother to use it.

But yesterday Google announced they will begin using it for Google News publishers in the form of the news_keywords metatag. It looks like this:

news_keywords metatag

In fact, I've already implemented on this site because it is easy. I don't have meta keywords but I do have the news_keywords tag.

Google said:

The goal is simple: empower news writers to express their stories freely while helping Google News to properly understand and classify that content so that it’s discoverable by our wide audience of users.

There is a detailed help document on how this works as well.

Are you going to implement this?

Honestly, I am a bit surprised Google is going this route.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google News Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 13, 2025

Jun 13, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google AI Mode Search, Apple Intelligence Updates, Google Live Search, AI Content, SEO & Google Ads

Jun 13, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Is Now Rolling Out AI Mode In The US

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Drops Support For Seven Existing Structured Data Markups

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Shows Audience Size For Custom Segments

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Search Autocomplete With Back To All

Jun 13, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Advanced Search Features Not Working