Is it best to avoid the meta keywords tag?

[prsntsnh]

We were earlier using the meta keywords tag on our pages and on reading a recommendation on Moz for the same being redundant, we went ahead and removed the same!

Can anyone provide inputs on whether the meta keywords tag is really irrelevant or actually detrimental to a page?

Thanks

[Arif-I]

Well. Google don't care about Meta Keywords anymore (As you know). But it is not actually causing any harm or irrelevancy (Just one thing though, giving insight of keywords you are targeting to competitors) because there are a lot of small search engines still value meta keywords . These search engines can bring some traffic. If you want to reduce your work then you can avoid using meta keywords, they do not bear any SEO value anymore for Big engines,

[BCutrer]

Something else to consider why you might want to omit them, that is an easy way for your competitors to do keyword research.

[TMP23]

I would just leave it blank, some say remove them or some say add keywords as like Arif said it can be used by smaller search engines.

I personally would leave it blank and focus on adding your keyword and also variations of your keyword in the page and in the Title and Description tags.

When it comes to on-page work I always think of Marys Chocolate Donuts.... Thanks Rand ha