Basic Meta Tags Useful for Websites
Meta tags are HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) commands or directives which play an important part in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and web site designing. Meta tags aren’t visible in a page displayed on any browser like Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft internet explorer. Only contents of one meta tag (Title Meta Tag) are displayed on top row of the browser. Meta tags are basically used to provide information about contents on your page to browsers and search engines.
Contents of description meta tags are used by search engines and when someone types a keyword and your site is displayed in listing, contents of meta tag description is displayed which contains brief overview of contents on your web page or web site.
All meta tag directives should be placed between <Head> and </Head>. Using meta tags on a web site or web page is optional i.e. you may or may not choose to use meta tags and decide which meta tag to include and which to omit. If you don’t use meta tags then it won’t effect appearance of your site or time it takes to load but use of meta tags has certain advantages which one cannot afford to ignore. As a rule of thumb you should include at least three of them i.e. title, description and keywords meta tags as they play important role in search engine optimization and inclusion of your web site in directories.
1. Title Meta Tag:
This is the first meta tag used to display title of your web page in a browser. You should place contents of title meta tag between <title> and </title>. Contents of this tag must be short and targeted. Number of characters it can contain varies from search engine to search engine. Normally it should be in between 40 to 80 characters.
2. Description Meta Tag:
This is an important meta tag and its contents are displayed in search results along with URL of your web site. A good description can bring more visitors to your web site. It is used like this:
<META Name=”Description” Content=”place contents of this tag here“>
Length of description meta tag should be in between 80 to 150 characters.
3. Keywords Meta Tag:
This meta tag is purely for search engines and directories. This tag plays an important role in search engine placement of your site. A lot of planning and research is required to find effective keywords. Keywords should be placed one after another and separated using a comma & space. Keywords must be the words that do appear on your web page. The length of keyword meta tag should be in between 150 to 300 characters.
4. Revisit Meta Tag:
5. Index, Follow Meta Tag:
6. Update frequency:
7. Author
8. Language:
All meta tag directives should be placed between <Head> and </Head>. Use of meta tags in your website or web pages is optional i.e. you may or may not choose to use meta tags. Which meta tags to include and which to omit depends on your choice or requirements of your website for optimization. As a rule of thumb you should include at least three of them i.e. title, description and keyword meta tag.
