The Meta Keyword Tag is back… sort of

Yesterday Google announced a new meta keyword tag, although this shouldn’t be mistaken for the old keywords metatag that are no longer used due to people abusing them . Instead the ‘news_keywords’ meta tag will allow news publishers more control over their articles that appear in Google News as they won’t have to worry about including the most commonly searched for keywords in their headlines and content.

Publishers are limited to 10 keywords which are to be separated by commas and are hidden from public view, with the aim of allowing publishers the ability to better categorise their news stories.

On Google’s official blog Product Manager, Rudy Galfi 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.”

He also added “The news_keywords metatag is intended as a tool — but high-quality reporting and interesting news content remain the strongest ways to put your newsrooms work in front of Google News users.”