| Meta
Tag Optimization |
Written
within the header tags of a webpage, Meta tags are meant
to carry information specifically for agents like browsers,
search bots and are not seen anywhere within the webpage.
In
the present context, it is quite hard to figure out
the part played by Meta tags in optimizing a website
for search engines. This is because many search engines
like Google tend to ignore them or give less or no importance
to them whereas some other search engines like Yahoo!
seem to give them some level of importance.
|
| Types
of Meta Tags and their functions |
| Basically
there are two major types of Meta tags. |
| |
META
tags: HTTP-EQUIV |
| |
Meta
tags that make use of a Name Attribute |
|
| META
tags with a NAME attribute are META types that do not
correspond to HTTP headers whereas META HTTP-EQUIV tags
are the equivalent of HTTP headers (HTTP headers contain
important data that helps a program in making sense out
of a web based message). |
| Meta
tags and search engine optimization |
Though
major search engines like Google do not provide much
importance to Meta tags, there are some medium level
search engines that do. This is why it is always better
to optimize Meta tags. Basically of all the Meta tags
the two primary tags that play a role in optimization
are the Meta Keywords tag and the Meta description tag.
|
| Optimizing
Meta Keywords tag |
The
Meta keywords tag basically contains a list of keywords
which are specific to a webpage. There was a time when
the internet was developing and the Meta keywords tag
was given much importance. But currently no major search
engine including yahoo!, google and MSN gives any importance
to these keywords. But there are some secondary search
engines which still consider them important in their
ranking algorithm.
Basically
the Meta keywords tag is written as follows:
<META
NAME=“keywords” CONTENT=“keyword 1,
keyword 2……keyword 3”>
|
| Optimizing
Meta Description tag |
The
Meta description tag contains a brief and concise description
or summery of the webpage's content. Though not many
search engines place much importance to the Meta Description
tag they still do carry some minor value and hence should
not be avoided. Some search engines tend to display
the Meta Description in their search results page and
hence making use of appealing and attention driving
descriptions can help improve the click through rates.
The description can use keywords and should be clear
and concise. Writing Meta descriptions that run into
pages is not advisable as that defeats the actual meaning
of writing a description. The Meta description tag is
particularly important if the content of a webpage is
very little. Anything within 200 characters should do
just fine.
Basically
the Meta Description tag assumes the following form:
<META NAME=“description” CONTENT=“Find
out what are Meta tags and how to optimize them?”>
(It
should be noted that both the Meta Description tag and
the Meta Keywords tag are specific to a particular webpage.)
|
| |
| |
| Other
types of Meta Tags |
|
In addition to the Meta Description and
keyword tag there are many other Meta tags
that are very useful though not in the search
engine optimization point of view. These
Meta Tags are used to give special instructions
to search bots or browsers on how to display
a page. ...More |
|
|
| What
Should I Put in these Meta Tags? |
| |
Choose
your relevant keywords. < |
| |
Write
the site's content based on these keywords |
|
Create
a title tag using the same keywords. |
| |
Create
a meta description tag as a marketing sentence,
also based on these keywords |
|
