Meta-Tags

What Are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content; the meta tags don’t appear on the page itself, but only in the page’s source code. Meta tags are essentially little content descriptors that help tell search engines what a web page is about.

The only difference between tags you can see (on a blogpost, say) and tags you can’t see is location: meta tags only exist in HTML, usually at the “head” of the page, and so are only visible to search engines (and people who know where to look). The “meta” stands for “metadata,” which is the kind of data these tags provide – data about the data on your page.

Do Meta Tags Help SEO?

Yes, they do, but not all of them and not all of the time. One of the goals of this page is to explain which meta tags can potentially help your SEO rankings and which have mostly fallen out of use. (See Know Your Meta Tags below).

If you want to find out whether a given page is using meta tags, just right-click anywhere on the page and select “View Page Source.”

A new tab will open in Chrome (in Firefox, it’ll be a pop-up window). The part at the top, or “head” of the page, is where the meta tags would be.

The meta tags in HTML will look something like this:

Know Your Meta Tags

There are four major types of meta tags worth knowing about and we’ll talk about them all here. Some are not as useful as they once were. Others are worth using regularly, and will very likely increase your traffic by letting Google know who you are and what you provide. (There are more than four kinds of meta tags, but some are less common or not relevant to web marketing).

The four types we’ll discuss here are:

• Meta Keywords Attribute – A series of keywords you deem relevant to the page in question.
• Title Tag – This is the text you’ll see in the SERP and at the top of your browser. Search engines view this text as the “title” of your page.
• Meta Description Attribute – A brief description of the page.
• Meta Robots Attribute – An indication to search engine crawlers (robots or “bots”) as to what they should do with the page.

Meta Keywords Attribute

Meta Keywords are an example of a meta tag that doesn’t make much sense to use these days. Years ago, the meta keyword tags may have been beneficial, but not anymore.

Remember back in kindergarten and when your teacher gave you a stern look and said “if you can’t stop using those crayons while I’m talking, I’m going to take them away from you,” and you didn’t listen and, to your shock, they were indeed taken away? That’s sort of what Google did with meta keywords.

Title Tag

Title tags, on the other hand, are the most important of all of the meta tags discussed here. These tags have a real impact on search rankings and, perhaps just as importantly, are the only one of the tags we’ll discuss here that are visible to the average user. You’ll find them in the search results page:

And at the top of your browser (for organic search pages or for PPC landing pages):

This is particularly useful if you want to give the page one primary title for the user but want to clarify or simplify that information for SEO purposes and for the user who’s shuffling multiple tabs on their desktop.

Meta Description Attribute                                           

The meta description is a useful meta tag as, very simply, it explains to search engines and (sometimes) searchers themselves what your page is about. Let’s say you were googling the phrase “meta keywords” for example. You might encounter the following results:

It’s important to note that the meta description tag won’t always show up in the results for a Google search (Google frequently picks a snippet of text from the page itself), but it’s useful in other ways. Google has also stated that keywords in meta descriptions won’t affect your rankings. However, a compelling meta description tag could entice searchers to click through from the SERP to your site, especially if the description includes the keywords they were searching for. And a strong click-through rate from the SERP could indirectly improve your rankings.

Google’s reasons are somewhat mysterious, but their actions speak loudly: meta keywords don’t much matter anymore, but meta descriptions most certainly do.

Meta Robots Attribute

With this attribute, you’re telling the search engines what to do with your pages:

• index/noindex – This tells the engines whether to show your page in search results or not.
• follow/nofollow – This tells the engines what to do with links on your pages: whether they should trust and “follow” your links to the next page or not.

META Tag Rules for SEO Optimization

Title Tag: Title Tag is the most important part of a Web page to optimize. It appears at the top (title bar) area of the Web browser and as the first line in the search engine results page. On most search results pages the title tag is used as the main link to the site in the listing. Most importantly search engines use them to determine the theme of the website.

1. Place the TITLE tag within the <HEAD> tag 

2. Should contain the most important keyword that appears on the Web page 

3. Limit to 60-70 characters including spaces between <TITLE> and </TITLE> 

4. Place the most relevant keyword phrase at the beginning of the text 

5. Don’t blatantly repeat the keyword. 

6. Don’t use stop words such as “the”, “a”, “as”, “of” 

7. Should read well and contain a marketing message

8. Remember to keep your TITLE tag short and to the point.

Description Tag: Meta Description Tag is a significant part of a Web page to optimize and appears as the second line in the search engine results pages. Essentially it provides a brief description to the visitor about your webpage and sets their potential. Place your Meta Description Tag directly below the TITLE tag. The difficult part is optimizing this tag for both the spiders and your site visitors.

1. Limit the number of characters to 150 – 180 

2. Blend keywords that appear on the Web page with a strong marketing message and call to action 

3. Limit the use of stop words and don’t repeat words 

4. Keep keywords unique to the Web page 

5. Write in complete sentences and keep important keywords at the beginning of the description 

6. Place tag within the <head> section of the HTML code

Header (H) Tags: H tags are the built-in purpose of HTML that shows the text within this tag as a header. They are assigned a importance (1 being the most important) and repeated on the same page. The most common use of the H tag is the title or top line of text that appears on the web page, the header.

1. Use H1 tags for the header or most important text of the page 

2. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to control the color and size of the tag 

3. H tags give some extra importance to the words within it 

4. The format looks like this: <h1> Search Engine Optimization Techniques</h1>

Alt (Image) Tags: Most of the People will like to include some images of the website. Alt text can usually be seen by hovering over a picture with the cursor in a browser. A helpful way to boost your search engine ranking is to include the ALT attribute, which means alternative text. This tag is read by search engines and they also contribute to the on-page optimization.

1. Use the alt tag on product pictures 

2. Good place to strategically place keywords and boost results 

3. Use the alt tag on the site logo – it should contain the company name 

4. The alt tag is part of 508 compliance (accessible to people with disabilities) 

5. Search engines cannot read pictures, they read the alternative text 

6. Do not overuse the alt tag 

7. Do not stuff it with keywords