What is the Difference Between Meta Descriptions & Meta Keywords for Blog Posts

Meta tags are an important part of the backend for your website to supply information for Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). These include tags for the page Title, Description, and Keywords. By understanding and customising these tags you can improve your blog posts and your SEO.

We answer the question about how Meta Descriptions and Meta Keywords differ and how they should be used.

What Are Meta Descriptions?

A Meta Description is a short summary of the content on the page or blog post and appears on SERPs when a user makes a query. Combined with a well written title, a Meta Description improves click-through-rates (CTRs) if users determine your post will answer their question.

Meta Description Best Practices:

Keep the length to between 150-160 characters
Use keywords naturally throughout
Write with the user in mind

What Are Meta Keywords?

Meta Keywords are the pre-cursor to the Meta Descriptions of today. They acted as a list of keywords that the post was targeting and focused on exactly matching what target users were likely to be searching, including misspellings and pluralisation.

In 2009 Google announced that their algorithm didn’t take the Meta Keywords into account and instead moved their focus to Search Intent and improving usability for users.

The Four Key Differences Between Them

Purpose

Meta Description is a summary for users
Meta Keywords are signals for Search Engines

Visibility

Meta Descriptions appear in Search Results
Meta Keywords are hidden in the code

SEO Impact

Meta Descriptions influence CTR
Meta Keywords have little to no impact on results

Relevance Today

Meta Descriptions are essential
Meta Keywords are mostly obsolete

Why Meta Descriptions Still Matter for Your Blog

Blog posts are common in search results, particularly for informational queries and a well-crafted Meta Description can make your post stand out and increase the CTR. Meta Descriptions also tell Search Engines what your blog post is about so they can show it for relevant searches.

Should You Still Use Meta Keywords?

No, you shouldn’t spend your time on Meta Keywords. They aren’t taken into consideration by search engines and aren’t visible to users so your time is better spent coming up with relevant Meta Descriptions, Page Titles, and adding appropriate alt tags to images.

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Whilst Meta Keywords were a large part of early SEO they are now outdated and no longer used by search engines. They laid the groundwork for Meta Descriptions which are more useful for users and a huge part of modern SEO.