Meta
Tags
If
you are familiar with Search Engine Optimization techniques, it
is most likely that you must have already come across a lot of
information on Meta Tags. In this article, we simply talk about
what Meta Tags are, their importance, the important Meta Tags
and useful tips on how to optimize your Meta Tags for a better
ranking with the search engines.
What
are Meta Tags?
Meta
Tags are the information inserted in the <head> area of
the HTML code of your web pages, where apart from the Title Tag,
other information inserted is not visible to the person surfing
your web page but is intended for the search engine crawlers.
Meta Tags are included so that the search engines are able to
list your site in their indexes more accurately. A typical Meta
Tag would look as given below. Here is what this page contains;
you can see this if you click on the view “Page source”
from your browser menu.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Creating Successful meta tags, list of all meta tags,
title tag limit, href tag, meta tag analysis</TITLE>
<meta name="description" content="Successful
Meta tags: What are meta tags? Meta tag analysis, list of all
meta tags, title tag limit, creating meta tags, background meta
tags. This article covers the most important aspects of meta tags
in relation to website optimization or SEO. ">
<meta name="keywords" content="meta tags, meta
tag refresh, meta tag optimization, meta tag analysis, meta tag
keywords, what are meta tags, successful meta tags, using meta
tags, html meta tags, common meta tags, author meta tag, alt tags,
list of all meta tags, meta tags html, meta tag description, about
meta tags">
</HEAD>
Using
Meta Tags in HTML is not necessary while making your web pages.
There are many websites that don’t feel the requirement
to use Meta Tags at all. In short Meta information is used to
communicate information to the search engine crawlers that a human
visitor may not be concerned with. Infoseek and AltaVista were
the first major crawler based search engines to support Meta keywords
Tag in 1996. Inktomi and Lycos too followed thereafter.
Why
are Meta Tags used?
Meta
Tags were originally designed to provide webmasters with a way
to help search engines know what their site was about. This in
turn helped the search engines decide how to rank the sites in
their search results. Making Meta Tags is a simple process. As
the competition increased, webmasters started manipulating this
tool through spamming of keywords. In turn most search engines
withdrew their support to Meta keywords Tag, which included Lycos
and AltaVista. From being considered as one of the most reliable
and important tool, Meta Tags are now often abused. In the present
day scenario a vital feature that the Meta Tags provide to the
websites is the ability to control, to a certain extent, how some
search engines describe its web pages. Apart from this, Meta Tags
also offer the ability to specify that a certain website page
should not be indexed.
Using
Meta Tags, however, provides no guarantee that your website page
would rank highly in the search engine rankings. Due to the rampant
abuse and manipulation of the Meta keywords Tag by webmasters,
most search engines don’t support it anymore.
Types
of Meta Tags
The
more important Meta Tags are discussed below in detail. A list
of several more Meta Tags is given at the end of this article.
The
Title Tag
The
Title Tag is not a Meta Tag. However, since it’s a very
important Tag, we thought it necessary to discuss it here. The
Title Tag is an HTML code that shows the words that appear at
the top title bar of your browser. The Title Tag is not displayed
anywhere else on the page. It is these words or phrase that appear
as the title of your page in the hyperlink listings on the search
engine results.
The
users in-turn click on this hyperlink to go to your website from
Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Therefore, the significance
of the Title Tag is evident as all search engines use the Title
Tag to gather information about your site.
Syntax
for the Title Tag is:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Creating Successful meta tags, list of all meta tags,
title tag limit, href tag, meta tag analysis</TITLE>
</HEAD>
Useful
Tips for Writing the Title Tag
The
Title Tag plays a vital role in determining your site’s
search engine rankings. One needs to pay attention to the words
that appear in your Title Tag and the order in which they appear.
As the tag suggests, Title Tag announces the summary of the content
appearing on the page. Think of it as a crisply worded sales phrase
and include your most relevant and specific keywords or key phrases
in the Title Tag describing the content of the page.
You
could put the product or service you are offering in the Title
Tag, instead of your firm or company’s name. For example,
if you have a site offering kitchen appliances, instead of having
a title like “www.cooking.com”, you could have a specific
keyword rich Title Tag like “Bar Blenders: Waring Kitchenaid
Hamilton beach Cuisinart bar blenders and blender”. This
title would cover several keyword phrases like- bar blenders,
bar blender, Waring bar blenders, Kitchenaid bar blenders, Hamilton
Beach bar blenders, Cuisinart bar blenders, blender etc.
Most
users search for specific products and services, not company names.
If you do wish to include the site name, then you can add it at
the end of the Title Tag. Having your most important keyword phrases
towards the beginning of the Title Tag helps display your title
in bold in the SERP (search engines results page). Title Tags
are also the text that gets captured when users bookmark your
page.
Google
usually reads about 90 characters of your Title Tag. So, leverage
this length to cover prominent keywords relevant to the page.
A common mistake webmasters make is to have the same Title Tag
throughout the site. You must leverage different Title Tags for
each page and customizing it depending on the content theme of
each page. Also read our detailed article on Title Tag Optimization.
The
Meta Description Tag
The
Meta Description Tag is an HTML code that allows you to give a
short and concise summary of your web page content. The words
placed in this Meta Tag, are often used in the SERP, just below
the Title Tag as a brief description of your page. In the Search
Engine Results Pages, after reading the Title of the page, a user
goes through the description of the page and decides whether she
wants to go to your site or not. It is therefore important that
your Meta Description Tag is nicely composed describing your page
offering while enticing the user to click on your listing.
Syntax
for Meta Description Tag is:
<HEAD>
<meta name="description" content="Successful
Meta tags: What are meta tags? Meta tag analysis, list of all
meta tags, title tag limit, creating meta tags, background meta
tags. This article covers the most important aspects of meta tags
in relation to website optimization or SEO.">
</HEAD>
Useful
Tips for Writing Meta Description Tag
In
case you have not provided any Meta Description Tag to your web
page, the search engines try to make one for you, often using
the first few words of your web page or a text selection where
the keyword phrases searched by the users appear. If the Search
Engine makes up a description by picking up text from your page,
it is not necessary that the generated description would do justice
to your web page.
The
Meta Description Tag should be written in such a way that it interests
the user, thus tempting her to click on the link to your site
and visit your web page.
The
Meta Description Tag needs to be kept brief yet informative. About
25-30 words description should do fine. Keywords and key phrases
should be included in the Meta Description Tag, though care should
be taken not to repeat them too often. Like the Title Tag, the
Meta Description Tag should be different and customized for each
page depending on the content theme of each page.For more information
on Meta Description Tag, read our other article on Meta Description
Tag Optimization.
The
Meta Keywords Tag
Most
search engines do not read the Meta Keywords Tag anymore. It is
okay to ignore the Meta Keywords Tags. However, if you feel more
comfortable using it, you can have about 15 important non-repetitive
keywords in this Tag, separated by commas.
Syntax
for Meta Keywords Tag is:
<HEAD>
<META name="keywords" content="Keyword phrases
that describe your web page">
</HEAD>
Meta
Robots Tag
The
Meta Robots Tag gives you the ability to specify whether search
engines should index that page or follow the links appearing on
that page. However, there is no need for using Meta Robots tag
if one is already using detailed robots.txt file to block any
specific indexing. Read our article on Working with the robots.txt
file.
The
various commands used under Meta Robots Tag are:
Index: allows the spider to index that page.
Noindex:
instructs the spider not to index the page.
Follow: instructs the spider to follow the links from that page
and index them.
Nofollow: instructs the spider not to follow links from that page
for indexing.
<HEAD>
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow">
<meta name="robots" content="index,nofollow">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
</HEAD>
Note: Use only one of the above given commands.
If
you have not specified any Meta Robots Tag on a page, by default,
the spiders understand that the page and all the links appearing
on that page are open for indexing. Therefore, it makes more sense
to use this Meta Tag in case you don’t want certain parts
of your web page indexed.
Apart from these popular Meta Tags, there are few more Tags that
are not so popular. These are:
Meta
Refresh Tag
The
Meta Refresh Tag is used to redirect a visitor from one page to
another or refresh the same page in a specified time. Same page
refresh comes in use when the page content is changing very quickly,
for example if there is a running score of a game or stock prices
updates happening on that page. When inserted into an HTML document,
it causes the user’s browser to load the same or a new web
page after a specified number of seconds. This Meta Tag has been
manipulated and is sometimes abused as a tool to “bait and
switch” a user from a doorway page.
To
refresh the current page:
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="60">
</HEAD>
Content
= "60" denotes refresh after 60 seconds
To
redirect to another page:
<HEAD>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="2;url=http://www.seorank.com/">
</HEAD>
Using
a Meta Refresh Tag to redirect to another page is likely to get
it dropped from search engines, since this method is tagged as
a doorway page in search engine algorithms. Unless you have a
compelling reason to use Meta Refresh Tag, do not use it.
Meta
Author Tag
The
Meta Author Tag identifies the author of a particular web page.
Though not highly supported, its format usually includes the name,
e-mail address of the Webmaster, name of the company or the Internet
address.
<META
name="Author" content="Author Information">
Meta
Distribution Tag
The
Distribution Meta Tag identifies the level of distribution of
your web page and how it should be further classified in context
to the World Wide Web. The three forms of distribution supported
by this Tag are:
‘Global’
specifies that your web page is for mass distribution.
‘Local’ lets you specify that your document is for
local distribution only.
‘Internal Use or IU’ specifies that your document
is not intended for public distribution.
Syntax
for different Meta Distribution Tags:
(Use only one of the following)
<HEAD>
<META name="Distribution" content="Global">
<META name="Distribution" content= “Local”>
<META name="Distribution" content= “IU”>
</HEAD>
Meta
Revisit Tag
Historically,
the Meta Revisit Tag was believed to specify how often a search
engine should visit a site for re-indexing. Although not proven,
webmasters could indicate the frequency of how often their content
changes and is ready for a re-index by search engines. These days,
much as one would like to, one cannot command the re-visit frequency
of any search engine, unless you go the PFI route.
<HEAD>
<META name="Revisit-After" content="X Days">
</HEAD>
Note: X indicates the number
List
of other Meta Tags
Abstract
Meta Tag: gives an overview of the entire web page in a sentence.
<HEAD>
<META name="Abstract" content="Abstract phrase">
</HEAD>
Copyright Meta Tag: gives copyright information about your page,
which you wish to disclose.
<HEAD>
<META name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement">
</HEAD>
Expires Meta Tag: tells the search engines when the content on
your web site would expire.
<HEAD>
<META name="Expires" content="Mon, 22 Jan 2004
17:45:05 GMT">
</HEAD>
Language Meta Tag: defines the language used on your web page.
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" content="EN">
</HEAD>
Ratings Meta Tag: tells the search engines if your site is for
general, restricted or adult audiences.
<HEAD>
<META name= “Rating” content= “General”>
</HEAD>
Article
Last Updated: 11th February 2004
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