Meta Tags

Meta tags always go in the HEAD section of the document. META NAME tags include descriptions and keywords. This HTML code helps some search engines classify and rank a web page. META HTTP-EQUIV tags can indicate to the web browser how to display the page. The META tags include details such as Content Subcategory, Access level and Access Restriction Requirements, Expiry Date, Publisher, Keywords and Description. There are many more uses for META tags.

Meta tags are very easy to create but not as important as most people believe. This does not mean that meta tags are not useful at all. Their usefulness depends on how well you use them.

The Keywords Meta Tag
The Meta Tag 'Keywords' was originally meant to help search engines categorize web pages and provide information to the spiders about graphic intense pages that had little textual content. However, the keywords meta tag was so greatly abused by spammers, that search engines had to decrease the relevancy of the meta tag content in their algorithm to keep their search results accurate. Today, most search engines do not consider the keywords meta tag in their web site ranking algorithm at all.

The Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions are still important and most people still use them in their overall SEO plan. So, let's take a look at the Keywords Meta tag.

Example of Keywords Meta Tag
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">

Avoid repeating the same word over and over in the Keywords Meta Tag. Repeating the same word over and over is a spamming technique known as 'Keyword Stuffing'. Also, remember to keep the length of the tag below 200 characters. Never use keywords that are completely irrelevant to your site in the hope of ranking highly for a popular phrase. Most search engines will penalize you, if you do this.

The Description meta tag is extremely important because it is what will be used by many search engines when they display the description of your web site in the search engine results page (SERP). So, remember to make your text sound inviting. Descriptions that are obviously designed for high ranking are unattractive to everyone.

Here is how the Description Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="description" content="your site description goes here">

Remember to keep the length of your description meta tag below 150 characters.

Some more meta tags
Now, let's talk about some other meta tags you may have seen. There are quite a few meta tags that you can use on a web page. These meta tags are not read by most of the search engines. Even if they are read by a search engine they are not used in their web site ranking algorithm at all. Nevertheless, you may find some additional tags useful. Here is a list of some of the more common meta tags:

The Robots Meta Tag is used to tell robots which pages on a site should be indexed and which should not.

Here is how the Robots Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">

The Abstract Meta Tag is similar to the description meta tag. You can use this tag to add a second description to your site for search engines which recognize this tag.

Here is how the Abstract Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="abstract" content="your site description phrase">

You can use the Author Meta Tag to identify yourself as the author of the web site.

Here is how the Author Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="author" content="your name goes here">

You can use the Copyright Meta Tag to let visitors to your site as well as the search engines know that your work is protected by copyright.

Here is how the Copyright Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="copyright" content="your copyright statement goes here">

The Distribution Meta Tag defines your audience. Currently three options are available:

Global
Local
IU - (Internal Use) - meant for Intranets
Here is how the Distribution Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="distribution" content="global">

You can use the Expires Meta Tag to set the expiry date for your web site if your site has an expiration date. Here is how the Expires Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="expires" content="Mon, 01 Jan 2007 12:00:00 GMT">

You can use the Language Meta Tag to indicate the language of your site. You have to use the appropriate abbreviation for the language of your choice. The abbreviation for English is EN.

Here is how the Language Meta Tag looks like:

<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="EN">

The Refresh Meta Tag is used to redirect a visitor to a new web site or web page.

Here is how the Refresh Meta Tag looks like:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10;URL=http://go-to-another-site.com"> The number 10 indicates the number of seconds to wait before the redirect is carried out.

If you use the Refresh Meta Tag your web site will be dropped by almost all search engines as it is considered spam by the search engines. Do not use it.

The Revisit Meta Tag is used to indicate to the search engine spider how often to revisit your web site. However, most search engine spiders ignore it.

Here is how the Revisit Meta Tag looks like:

<meta name="revisit-after" content="X days">