We've recently received some questions about how Google (or more accurately) uses keywords to rank meta tag search results on the web. Suppose that you have a two website owners, Alice and Bob. Elis runs a company called Elisco and is run by Bob Babco. One day while searching on Bob's site, Alice noticed that Bob had copied some of the keywords used in the word's meta tags. Even more interesting, Bob added the words "Alisco" to a word's meta tag. Should you take care of Alice?
At least the answer to Google web search results is currently (at least Sep 2009). Google does not use the word meta tag in our web search rankings. Watch this video to clarify the question below.
Does Google use the word meta tag in its web search rankings?
Google has already sold Google search tools in one word and this product has the ability to set meta tags that include some WordPress meta tags. But this is an international search tool that is completely different from our main web search. Our web search (a popular search that millions of people use every day on Google.com) completely ignore the word meta tags. They currently do not affect our search rankings.
Why doesn't Google use meta tags for WordPress?
About a decade ago, search engines would only judge pages based on the content of web pages, not "off-page" elements such as links pointing to a web page. Nowadays, some WordPress meta tags have quickly become an area where someone usually fills in unrelated words without having to look at those words from the general visitor. Due to the misuse of certain WordPress meta tags, Google began ignoring the WordPress meta tag many years ago.
Does this mean that Google is ignoring all meta tags?
No, Google supports many other meta tags. This meta tag page provides more information about the many meta tags we use. For example, we sometimes use meta tags in our search results fragments as this screenshot shows:
Although we occasionally use meta tags for the pieces that we display, we do not use meta tags for our classification.
Does this mean that Google will always ignore word meta tags?
Google may use this information in the future, but it is not possible. Google has been ignoring some WordPress meta tags for many years and we do not see the need to change this policy at this time.