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Computer Help
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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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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Computer Help
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