no meta keywords Topic is solved

[bergerkos]

Hello, everyone

Seems like nobody has asked this yet for Joomla 4...
All in all it seems to be a rather advanced thing, css grids etc. But some things aren't that obvious.

So, for some reason or other, 'View page source' for my (J4-based) site doesn't show meta keywords. Only shows meta "rights", "viewport" and "description" (I got rid of "generator" tag showing Joomla as my backend).
The only place I found where keywords can be added using Joomla! tools is an Article: Article -> Publishing -> Metadata -> Keywords.
All right, but adding keywords there doesn't make them visible either... Funny, because Metadata -> Meta description does show all right.

It mentions in the (brief) documentation some brand new management of SEO... Supposed to be a good thing, I'm sure. But how do I make meta keywords work? I'm using Cassiopea template, which I have modified a bit (added new full-width module position).


Thanks in advance for your help

[bergerkos]

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[djadan]

Hello,

I can see what you mean about there only being a meta description for the menu item in J4. This article might explain why keywords aren't included:

https://www.sem rush.com/blog/meta-keywords/ - "It does not appear that Google uses meta keywords elements"

I don't know whether that was the official reason for Joomla not including keywords as it used to, but it's quite possible.

Hope that helps.

[bergerkos]

Right, I've noticed this, too.

But here is exactly what it says at the Joomla! documentation page:

The meta keyword tag found in the head of most Web documents has little effect for Google, Bing and many of the other larger search engines any more, however some search engines such as Yahoo do still make use of the meta tags as part of their algorithm - so again this is something you should still continue to provide.

[djadan]

As in this page? https://docs.joomla.org/Using_Keywords which is from 2019, ie pre-J4

Maybe what they need to do is update the documentation to help manage people's expectations.

[brian]

That documentation page is out of date

The official reason is exactly what @djadan said. They serve no purpose so they were removed.

You will see a keywords field however as this is also used for things like the related articles module

[djadan]

Hi @brian that's a helpful note about using keywords in articles. I can see why it might be confusing though. Maybe it should include a brief explanation to save people filling it in for the wrong reasons ie SEO.

[sozzled]

@brian is right: keywords serve no purpose for SEO. Keywords are used by the Related Articles module in J! 4; that is their only purpose, AFAICT.

Perhaps, a decade ago, keywords may have served some purpose with SERPs but, today, they don't.

We have these discussions on this forum from time to time. Many people—self-professed SEO "experts"—write about stuffing keywords into web content as a way of improving SERP rankings. As @brian has written more times on this forum than I can remember, search engines pay no attention to keywords when indexing content. Use keywords if you want but just remember that they're only there as a way of grouping related content together within the confines of your website; outside of your website, no-one else knows (or cares) about whatever "keywords" you may have defined.

[bergerkos]

OK thanks a lot for this clarification, folks

Won't waste my time on this, then.

[bergerkos]

One more question. How do I mark the thread "solved" or something? Also, I wasn't able to link the particular Joomla doc page (the outdated one), was immediately warned about trying to post something "not related to Joomla!"

[sozzled]

@bergerkos: As the author of a forum topic, look at the message that best answers your question and choose the "tick" option.

[DV-admin]

@brian is right: keywords serve no purpose for SEO. Keywords are used by the Related Articles module in J! 4; that is their only purpose, AFAICT.

Well they are also still used in Joomla Banners component as well as related articles so it would be nice to get this back. I have no use for keywords in SEO however I need them to use all the features of Joomla!!

[DV-admin]

@bergerkos: As the author of a forum topic, look at the message that best answers your question and choose the "tick" option.

Sadly I agree this issue is still not resolved. I wish someone would look into it.

[Per Yngve Berg]

Keywords are still present. Even through they are not in the html output, they work in related articles module.

[toro-detor]

Well in Joomla-3 I always emphasized "there's a place where you can fill in keywords - make use of it".

The argument that the metatag for keywords is useless, might be right. However for all those who look at this post in the future, and who prefer to still have that metatag (like I do) - here's the solution.

Hardcode the global keywords
1. go to templates/your-template/index.php (or inside backend, go directly to this file)
2. at the top, in the php-section, there are a lot of declarations,
the last one is probably "$pageclass = $menu ...."
3. enter new line below that: $this->setMetaData('keywords', 'enter your global keywords here' );
THIS IS MISSING IN CASSIOPEIA-TEMPLATE (well, maybe they change it in future)
Here you can also enter other metatags for example geo-location etc. (which google checks)
and: $this->setGenerator('Joomla-4 Template designed by me');
4. Now scroll down on same page to the html-section and ensure after opening <head> you have:
<jdoc:include type="metas" />
This is present in Cassiopeia-template, so dont write it twice.

Note: "Hardcoded" means it will display in the source-code of every page of your site, regardless what you fill in in other places, those will be overwritten ... if they would show, but they don't.

[Hartstongue]

@brian is right: keywords serve no purpose for SEO. Keywords are used by the Related Articles module in J! 4; that is their only purpose, AFAICT.

Well they are also still used in Joomla Banners component as well as related articles so it would be nice to get this back. I have no use for keywords in SEO however I need them to use all the features of Joomla!!

I agree. I updated my site from 3.10 to 4.1.5 yesterday and wondered why my banners weren't showing. My site used meta keywords organise banners throughout the 2,700 articles on the website.

The keywords are still stored in the articles and menus. Is there a tweak to read that information and pass it to the template?