Keyword Stuffing
meta and head 1996 deadThe meta tag that decided search rankings until people worked out they could just lie.
In 2026: Dead as a ranking signal. Google has stated publicly since 2009 that it does not use the keywords meta tag at all, and it stopped mattering years before that, for the obvious reason.
Where it came from: Common practice from 1996. Google confirmed it ignores the keywords tag in a Webmaster Central post, September 2009. Wikipedia ↗
<meta name="keywords" content="home page, homepage, personal, cool links, free,
free stuff, mp3, mp3s, games, best site, cool site, awesome, links, web,
internet, surf, surfing, guestbook, sign my guestbook, under construction">
<meta name="description" content="Welcome to my home page!!! Sign my guestbook!!!">
<!-- Some pages also hid a wall of the same words in the body -->
<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">free mp3 games cool links free mp3 games cool links</font>