Content keywords are incorrect in Google Webmaster Tools

Question

I have recently opened a Shopify store however the content keywords are linking back to the 'opening soon' message on the storefront password page.

That page was there for about 2 months but I had never registered the site with Google until the password was lifted.

I have checked the sitemap linked to webmaster and it's correct, I have also run Fetch just to alert Google to the updates. it has not been indexed yet. Is it just a matter of time until those content keywords are updated to the tags, metadata, and keywords that I've put on the homepage?

Answer 1

It is just a matter of time until the content keywords are updated.

Googlebot builds this list as it crawls your website, whether or not you actually have a Webmaster Tools account. When you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools, this information will be waiting for you. Googlebot tracks this information because it is similar to how Google indexes your website. To show your website in search, it needs to know what keywords are on your pages.

The "content keywords" list in Google Webmaster Tools is basically a list of terms that are used on more pages of your site compared to other sites. The list is pretty much for your benefit - it shows a glimpse of how Googlebot sees your site.

I've found that this list isn't super useful for SEO:

• It takes a while (a couple weeks) to update (as you are discovering)
• It seems unrelated to rankings. Just because a keyword is high on the list, it doesn't mean you are more likely to rank for it.
• There are some bugs where common words (equivalent to "the" and "and") show up for sites in some languages.