Almost every week we receive requests from dealers to update their “meta tags” to help them rank better on Google. As it turns out Google doesn’t use the Meta Description or Meta Keywords tags to determine your ranking in web search results. While we don’t necessarily expect car dealers to know this information, it should be common knowledge to those working in the SEO space that Google places no value on these.
In September 2009 Matt Cutts of Google announced that Meta Keywords were not used as a ranking factor for web searches. In this same post they also announced that they don’t use the Meta Description for ranking purposes. Google and other search engines often (but not always) use the Description Meta tag as the text for the search results snippet, so it’s more important that the meta description be compelling rather than keyword stuffed. Ideally you want someone to click through to your page and not avoid your listing because it looks like keyword stuffed spam.
While Bing has been less vocal about the death of the Keywords Meta tag our own tests have shown that meta keywords isn’t likely a factor in rankings for them either.
We do however recommend that some keywords be used in the meta description because these terms, if they match the search query, will be bolded on the search results page and could draw the user’s eye to your listing.
One of the few cases where the keywords meta tag would still be valuable is with some site search tools that can be configured to utilize this information.
So, if you’re dealing with an SEO expert or firm that recommends updating your meta keywords tag or stuffing your meta description with every possible keyword combination, we suggest that you look for someone else to help you with your dealership’s SEO needs or ask one of our account executives or sales team members about our FUSION SEO packages.
