The Blues have been in discussions with the former Burnley defender, whose contract ended in June, as well as midfielder Idrissa Gueye, about extending his time with the club.
Now Keane has penned a new contract, and the hope is that his Senegal international teammate will do likewise very soon.
Keane has not been a regular recently in the Toffees backline, as James Tarkowski and Jarrad Branthwaite have been the starting centre-backs under both Sean Dyche and, since he left, David Moyes as well, on his return to the Goodison hotseat.
In truth, the 32-year-old had developed a reputation as something of a calamity waiting to happen, making a series of significant and often directly catastrophic errors over the previous seasons. That ultimately cost him his starting place in the team.
So there would have been very mixed feelings about Keane remaining an Everton player, with many Blues fans perhaps thinking it would be best if he left this summer.
However, although ideally I would agree, the Toffees are facing a huge squad rebuild over the coming few weeks and need as much money available as possible for bringing in new talent from other clubs.
Clearly, the priorities in terms of new signings are in attack, both strikers and wide players, centre-midfield, and full-back. Limited financial resources need to be conserved for those areas of the team.
Keeping Keane, then, an experienced Premier League player who does have a happy knack for scoring goals, makes sense overall.
He will not be starting regularly, of course, but he appears happy to be a fourth choice behind Tarkoski, Branthwaite, and last summer's signing, Jake O'Brien.
The Irishman had a fine second half to the last campaign playing at right-back when Moyes came back, but he will surely feature a lot more in the centre of defence next season.
Attention will now turn to Gueye and whether he will join Keane in putting pen to paper on his new contract, too.
Neither Keane nor even Gueye signing new deals will really excite Evertonians, and we have to hope and believe that they will represent just the beginning of a major rebuild that will herald better times ahead for the Blues.