What exactly are Meta Tags?
If you examine the HTML coding of a web page, the Meta tags are HTML codes which have been inserted in the header of a web page, between the “opening” and “closing” HEAD tags. Meta tags provide data about your Web page to search engine robots so that the search engine can better understand what your web page is about.
Are Meta Tags still essential to SEO?
Meta tags were originally used tell search engines what your page is about. Meta tags list information about the web page, such as the author, keywords, description, type of document, copyright, and other core information. However, due to spamming of keywords and massive abuse of Meta tags by adult-oriented sites, their importance has greatly diminished in the search engine algorithms.
That is not to say that meta tags are completely useless. Yahoo!, Bing, and other secondary search engines still make use of Meta Tags in their search engine algorithms when it comes to ranking websites. Google places emphasis mostly on the Title Meta tag and the amount of backlinks to a webpage.
Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what “character set” to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content. Meta Tags aren’t always required, but as a rationale, it makes a lot more sense to take advantage of them than to leave them out. If the Meta Tags are not in place, the search engines will generate their own description of the site based on the content observed from the first 200 words of your web page. This may not always be optimized for keyword density, therefore affecting your page’s ranking in the search engines. By correctly optimizing Meta Tags with your targeted keywords, you have much more control over what is displayed in the search engines for your web page.
SEO tips for optimizing your Meta Tags
Meta tags are not magic bullets for search engine ranking, but they are far from being dead. Meta tags with informative, well-written descriptions and targeted keywords should be an integral part of your promotional strategy.
Title tag: this will be the most significant meta tag since Google pays special attention to the keywords and phrases used inside the Title tag. Make sure that it is no longer than 70 characters long and insert your main keyword at the beginning of the Title tag for maximum effect.
Description tag: this will be the second most significant meta tag since it is displayed in the search engines, and should contain keywords and phrases reflected from the Title tag, and an accurate summary of what the web page topic is about. Don’t use more than 155 characters within the Meta description tag.
Keywords tag: this is the least important Meta tag as Google doesn’t pay much attention to it due to the prevalence of keyword spam. A general rule is to contain keywords that are present in the page content, with no more than 10 keywords recommended.
Learn more about Meta Tags by visiting Advantage SEO. Information covering search engine optimization, PPC advertising, web design, usability issues and social media marketing.
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