🧭 Overview
Two questions come up frequently among Search Atlas users: do meta keywords still matter for rankings, and can OTTO submit pages for instant indexing? This article answers both clearly so you can make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.
🏷️ What Are Meta Keywords?
Meta keywords are an HTML tag that once allowed webmasters to list targeted keywords directly in a page's code. In the early days of search engines, this tag influenced rankings. Today, the landscape is very different.
- Google ignores meta keywords entirely. Google officially stopped using the meta keywords tag as a ranking signal in 2009. Adding keywords to this tag has zero positive impact on your Google rankings.
- Bing also ignores them for ranking. Microsoft's Bing confirmed it does not use meta keywords as a positive ranking factor either.
- They will not hurt you — but they will not help you. Leaving meta keywords blank or removing them from existing pages has no negative effect on your rankings.
- They can expose your strategy to competitors. Because meta keywords are visible in your page source code, listing your target keywords there can reveal your SEO strategy to anyone who inspects your HTML.
In short: meta keywords are a legacy tag. Focus your efforts on the signals that actually move the needle — high-quality content, title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data.
✅ What You Should Optimise Instead
Search Atlas gives you the tools to focus on the on-page elements that Google does use as ranking signals. Prioritise these over meta keywords:
- Title tags — the single most important on-page text signal. Keep them under 60 characters and include your primary keyword near the front.
- Meta descriptions — do not directly influence rankings, but a well-written description improves click-through rates from search results.
- Heading structure (H1–H3) — helps Google understand your page hierarchy and topic relevance.
- Body content quality — Google evaluates topical depth, entity coverage, and content helpfulness.
- Internal linking — distributes authority and helps Google discover and understand your pages.
Search Atlas includes tools to audit and optimise these on-page elements. If you are unsure where to find the relevant features in your account, reach out to our team for guidance on navigating to the right tools for on-page auditing and meta tag generation.
⚡ Does Search Atlas Support Instant Indexing?
Yes — OTTO, the Search Atlas OTTO SEO agent, includes an instant indexing capability that allows pages to be submitted for indexing without waiting for a standard crawl. If you have questions about how instant indexing works within your specific OTTO setup or need help confirming that your pages have been submitted correctly, our support team can walk you through the details for your account.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.