Meta tags are machine parsable code snippet that provides meta dat about a given HTML document.
Meta element are popularly used to specify page description, keywords, author of the document and other informations.
Among these meta tags is the keyword meta tag, which is denoted by
Note: the words in italic are the meta keywords.
To make it xHTML compliant, you need to add a slash(/) before the “>” sign.
Decades ago, meta keywords were use to define keywords of a HTML page or website. At that time, it was one of the major factor used by Google and other search engines in ranking websites or pages in search engine result page (serp).
As a result, webmasters and SEO expert started abusing it by stuffing web pages with keywords even when the keywords weren’t related to the page.
Due to the continue abuse, Google and other major search engines decided to remove keywords in meta tag from their ranking algorithm.
You may ask, Does this mean that Google will always ignore the keyword meta tag?
according to a blog post made by Matt Cutt member of Google search quality team, he answered this question, i quote It’s possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it’s unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy.
Read the full blog post Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking
Now that we’ve established the fact that Google doesn’t use the keyword meta tag, why waste your precious time stuffing your web pages with keyword.
To be on a safer side, it is wise you still add a page relavant keywords meta tag to your website usually 150 character or less, in case Google mysteriously decide to give some importance to it.
I recommend you read Basic SEO Tips You Must Know To Optimise Your Website Content For Search Engines so as to sharpen and improve your on-page SEO knowlege.