Technically a META tag is that little snippet of code typically located between the <HEAD> </HEAD> tags in an HTML file. More importantly however,
META tags are a commonly overlooked component of your website. In the early 90’s search engines used
META tags to rank the growing number of websites.
But most of us have probably had at least one experience of looking up key words in google or other search engines only to have a porn site or completely unrelated site pop up. It was this abuse of
Meta tags that led major search engines to employ more sophisticated methods of ranking pages. Thus the emphasis on
META tags has been greatly reduced and often forgotten. That being said it is important to remember that some search Engines still read
META tags in one way or another but there is now more confusion relating to them.
There are three main types of
META tags and each one is unique. They are as follows…
1.
Meta description: This is a 20-25 word description of your business in short plain language. Search engines that support this tag will use this information to publish on their search results page. If you have a website with very little text this tag is particularly important.
Example: <META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Citrus fruit wholesaler.”>
Recommendation: Make your meta description as compelling as you can, as your description often is the difference between getting your listing clicked on in the search results or your competitor’s site.
2.
Meta Keywords: These are your Keywords. They are used by some search engines to index your website in addition to words from the title and page body. These Keywords are also one of the principle
Meta tags, combined with your Descriptive tags they are used to properly index your site by search engines that support these tags.
Example: <
META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”grapes, apples, lemons, limes”>
Recommendation: Be careful! Make sure to only use keywords that are relevant to your site. Search engines can penalize or blacklist your site for abuse. Also remember by using this tag you are exposing your keywords to your competitors. Also,if your tags are good enough your competitors will probably copy
you.
3.
Meta Title: This is the simplest form of
META tags. This tag would normally have the same title as contained in the <TITLE></TITLE> tag.
Example: <
META NAME=”Title” CONTENT=”Page Title Here”>
Recommendation: Be careful with how many words you use. I like to use 4-7 words.
Additional Help: If you are interested in learning more about your
META tags affordable web design offers a
FREE
META TAG BUILDER on our website for the
Valley Business Journal readers. Go to
http://www.imarketingexpert.com and click on
Meta tag builder. It is located on the bottom of our home page.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 5:21 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimization.
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