Matt Cutts takes another question from webmasters and this time it’s all about meta tags. Someone wants to know whether Google uses them in their search engine rankings and, if so, to what extent they influence the results. The software engineer’s answer may surprise Meta tag devotees.

Overall, Google does not use these tags at all. It may be possible that other search engines utilize them but the people at Mountain View have long stopped this practice. Many readers may be confused by this admission. After all, various SEO gurus have repeatedly preached about their importance. It has even come to the point where people sue each other for what they perceive as incorrect or incursive tag usage. This is an unnecessary stress given their current status as an inconsequential matter.

Matt explains that while these tags used to hold weight, the exponential growth of spam keywords has made Google reconsider. Despite this, the company may still see value in the Meta description tag if it contains useful information. It cannot boost the ranking but it can be repurposed as a snippet on the results page.

Video Link:
Google does not use the keywords Meta tag in web ranking –