Meta Keywords: Meta keywords are a type of meta element, or a tag used in HTML or XHTML to provide meta data about a web page. Originally used in search engines like Infoseek and AltaVista in the mid-1990s, meta keywords eventually became one of the most popular meta elements used by search engines. They are often used in conjunction with other meta elements, including meta descriptions.
A meta keywords tag is used to highlight keywords and keyword phrases on a page which a search engine user is targeting. Users are likely used to seeing these emboldened phrases that match their search keywords in the excerpts below a web page's title in their search listings. There is no proof or consensus in the online search industry that these keywords have any effect on search rankings, and Google announced in 2009 that they no longer take these keywords into account, though they stated in 2012 that they were considering reinstating meta keywords for news articles to help users identify worthy content. However, Yahoo! still uses meta keywords as a part of their ranking algorithm.