RankEngineQuick answer: Meta keywords are an HTML tag that search engines once used to understand page topics. Google stopped using the meta keywords tag for web ranking in 2009 and has ignored it ever since. Bing has stated it treats keyword stuffing in the tag as a spam signal. Adding meta keywords to your pages today has no positive effect on search rankings and carries a small risk of a penalty on Bing.
Why people still ask about meta keywords
The advice to "add meta keywords" has been repeated in SEO tutorials, forum threads, and outdated blog posts for years. Many page-builder apps and CMS themes still include a meta keywords field, which makes the tag look legitimate and actionable. The field exists because the tag was used — by AltaVista, Yahoo, and early Google — before keyword stuffing made it untrustworthy. The machinery outlasted its usefulness, and the myth followed.
If your Shopify theme exposes a meta keywords field, you can leave it empty. Nothing breaks. Filling it in does nothing for Google rankings and signals low-quality optimization to Bing.
What Google actually says
Google published its position directly and has not changed it. From the Google Search Central Blog:
"Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking."
That post has been publicly accessible for well over a decade. There is no nuance here, no partial credit, no niche where the tag helps. The statement is unambiguous.
Practical rule: Leave the meta keywords field blank on every page — filling it wastes time on Google and risks a spam flag on Bing.
What Bing does with meta keywords
Bing's guidance is slightly different but still unfavorable. Bing does not use the keywords meta tag as a positive ranking signal. It has stated that stuffing the tag with keywords can be treated as a spam indicator. The practical outcome is the same: do not fill it in.
What actually moves the needle
The effort you were about to spend on meta keywords belongs in three places instead.
1. The title tag
The title tag is the most direct on-page ranking signal you control. Search engines display it as the blue headline in results, and its content tells both crawlers and users what the page covers. Keep it under 60 characters, lead with the most important keyword, and make it readable — it doubles as your click-through text.
| Tag | Google ranking signal | Visible to users | Character limit (guideline) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta keywords | None | No | N/A |
| Title tag | Strong | Yes (SERP headline) | ~60 |
| Meta description | None directly | Yes (SERP snippet) | ~155 |
| H1 tag | Moderate | Yes (page headline) | No hard limit |
RankEngine's free SEO Title Generator lets you draft and preview a title tag without creating an account.
2. The meta description
The meta description does not influence rankings directly, but it influences click-through rate — which affects traffic regardless of position. A description that matches search intent and includes the target phrase (which Google bolds in the snippet) earns more clicks from the same ranking.
Write one sentence that says what the page contains and one that tells the reader what they get. Stay under 155 characters or Google will truncate. The free Meta Description Generator shows a live SERP preview as you type.
Practical rule: Treat the meta description as an ad headline — write it for the searcher who is about to choose between your result and the one above it.
3. On-page keyword placement
Where keywords appear in the body of the page still matters. The H1, the first paragraph, subheadings, image alt text, and the URL slug are all legitimate signals. The goal is natural language that a human would write — not density-optimized copy that reads like a keyword list. If you want to check whether you have overdone it, the Keyword Density Checker gives you a count without guesswork.
How to enter meta keywords (and why you probably should not)
Most platforms expose a meta keywords field in the page settings panel or the SEO section of the editor. In Shopify, it is absent from native fields because Shopify does not generate a keywords meta tag by default. Some third-party themes add one; some SEO apps expose the field.
The correct action for every platform:
| Platform / location | What to do with meta keywords |
|---|---|
| Shopify native SEO fields | Field does not exist — nothing to do |
| Shopify theme with custom field | Leave empty |
| Third-party SEO app that exposes field | Leave empty |
| WordPress / Yoast | Leave empty (Yoast has removed it from its default schema) |
| Magento, BigCommerce, or other platform | Leave empty |
| Hand-coded HTML | Do not include the tag |
If someone on your team or an agency asks you to fill in meta keywords as a deliverable, point them to the Google Search Central post. It is the primary source, it is public, and it settles the question.
Practical rule: If an SEO audit tool flags "missing meta keywords" as an error, treat that as a signal the tool is outdated, not a signal you need to fix anything.
What happens with AI answer engines
AI search engines — Perplexity, ChatGPT search, Google's AI Overviews, Bing Copilot — do not use the meta keywords tag either. They build answers from page content, structured data, and signals that indicate a source is authoritative and well-structured.
If you are trying to appear in AI-generated answers, the relevant signals are clean structured data (JSON-LD schema), clear on-page content, and explicit signals that your site is available to AI crawlers. That is a different discipline from traditional SEO, and it is covered in detail at Answer Engine Optimization: Website Structure, H1, FAQ and AI search optimization: the 2026 guide for Shopify.
Where RankEngine fits in
For Shopify merchants, the practical problem is not knowing what meta keywords do — it is having hundreds or thousands of pages with thin, missing, or wrong title tags and meta descriptions. Writing and checking those at catalog scale is the actual work.
RankEngine audits a Shopify store, writes fixes back through the Shopify Admin GraphQL API, then re-reads the live store to confirm each fix landed before marking it done. It covers title tags, meta descriptions, image alt text, JSON-LD schema, canonical signals, redirects, and internal links. Autopilot applies recurring fixes on a schedule so new products do not slip through.
It does not build backlinks, and it does not replace Google Search Console. Both of those are still your responsibility.
Plans start on a free tier, with paid plans from $9.99/month, billed through Shopify. There is a 7-day Pro-level trial. If you want to see what an audit surfaces before committing to anything, the free store scan runs without a signup.
For a broader view of what the app covers versus alternatives, RankEngine vs Smart SEO and RankEngine vs Yoast SEO for Shopify lay out the differences plainly.
The short version
Meta keywords were a real ranking signal before search engines got good enough to read page content directly. They are not one now. Google ignores them. Bing treats stuffing as a negative signal. The tag persists because web platforms still render the field and old tutorials still recommend it.
The title tag, meta description, and on-page content are where the same effort pays off. If you want a full picture of Shopify SEO from the ground up, the Shopify SEO: the complete 2026 guide for stores covers the whole picture in one place.