Member Avatar for kellybax

I need serious help with meta tags. Here is the story: I changed the whole theme of my website recently. The meta tags were standard and showed the keywords in them. I was getting some traffic from Google so I they must have been working.

Two weeks ago, I changed my site to a totally different subject and am now using a template. This template has a different meta tag system. This is what it says: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" /></head>

I am ASSSUMING that it means that my content and html is now my keywords for my meta tags. Is that right? To be sure, I created my own meta tags and stuck them on each individual page of my site. I made specific keywords for each page and put those tags in the content area.

Now, my question is this: Will this form of meta tagging work? I am still getting searches from my old keywords contained in my old tags. Maybe it is because it has only been two weeks and the changes are not showing up in Google yet???? However, Google does show my new title and description so why are my keywords not working yet?

Please help! My knowledge of this type of thing is pretty limited.

Thank you so much if you can help!!!!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by stymiee

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Brief recap: replaced a site theme and saw search snippets update for title/description while traffic still arrives for the old topic; correctly moved the focus away from keyword meta tags toward real signals. The checklist below fills gaps in the thread with practical diagnostics and actions to align indexed search results with the new site subject.

First, diagnose where the old-keyword traffic is coming from. Map search queries to landing URLs (Search Console Performance or server logs), inspect Google’s last-crawled copy of those landing pages, and compare that to the live HTML the site serves. Confirm whether legacy pages still exist, whether URL structure changed during the theme swap, and whether any canonical, noindex or redirect rules are accidentally preserving old content in the index.

Second, fix the technical mismatches that keep old terms alive. Restore or add 301 redirects from obsolete URLs to the matching new pages, correct any header/template output so page-level meta and structural elements render in the template’s header area, and submit an updated XML sitemap so crawlers see the new site map quickly. If templates inject content in the wrong place, move those outputs into the theme header file so search engines read the intended page structure.

Third, strengthen on-page and linking signals for the new topic. Ensure visible page copy uses the target terms naturally (headline and first paragraph matter), update image alt text and URL slugs, add contextual internal links with descriptive anchor text, and earn a small number of relevant inbound links. Request indexing for priority pages after these changes.

Expect a transition window of days to several weeks. Monitor Search Console for impressions, clicks and which pages serve which queries; if after a month or two the new subject still fails to surface, re-audit content quality, backlinks and the template’s technical output for hidden issues. Following ’s direction to prioritize content and links, these steps provide a repeatable path from diagnosis to recovery.

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Member Avatar for stymiee

I need serious help with meta tags. Here is the story: I changed the whole theme of my website recently. The meta tags were standard and showed the keywords in them. I was getting some traffic from Google so I they must have been working.

They weren't working. Google doesn't use Meta tags to rank websites.

Two weeks ago, I changed my site to a totally different subject and am now using a template. This template has a different meta tag system. This is what it says: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" /></head>

I am ASSSUMING that it means that my content and html is now my keywords for my meta tags. Is that right?

No. That meta tags just tells the browser what characters set you are using. The LINK tag tells the browser where to find the stylesheet for the page. That's it. Those two tags have nothing to do with Meta tags.

To be sure, I created my own meta tags and stuck them on each individual page of my site. I made specific keywords for each page and put those tags in the content area.

They don't belong in the content area. That's invalid markup.

Will this form of meta tagging work?

No. Not only because you;re using them incorrectly. But they meta tags don't affect rankings.


Put back your old meta tags where they were and don't worry about them again. They have no SEO value. Instead focus on your content as that is what's important.

Member Avatar for kellybax

Okay. Forgive my ignorance but here is another question. What part of my site affects what users search for? If they are searching for "home business", what in my site will make that come up in Google or any other search engine? If it is not meta tags, what is it? Text content?

If my "old site" was getting searches through it's keywords "natural products", why is my "new" site not getting picked up with it's keywords in searches?

Member Avatar for stymiee

Okay. Forgive my ignorance but here is another question. What part of my site affects what users search for? If they are searching for "home business", what in my site will make that come up in Google or any other search engine? If it is not meta tags, what is it? Text content?

There are a lot of factors. Page content is an important one. So is anchor text of incoming links.

If my "old site" was getting searches through it's keywords "natural products", why is my "new" site not getting picked up with it's keywords in searches?

1) You made changes which affected how your page is ranked

2) Your pages do not deserve to rank well yet. In Google newer pages get a sort of boost when they first launch but then lose that boost shortly thereafter. You now have to promote those pages to get more links to them which will help them rank better.

Member Avatar for kellybax

Thank you for your help. I appreciate you taking the time to help me understand.

Member Avatar for stymiee

No problem. It's why we're here. :)

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