Using HTML Meta Tags It wasn't that long ago that many believed Meta tags were the magic bullet of search engine optimization and postion. Simply create the perfect combination of Meta tags with the perfect keyword density and Wam... Better search engine ranking! Well, that is far from being true today, and in this article we'll tell you what Meta tags to include and not to include for better optimization and search engine position, and we'll tell you exactly what is important and what is not so important when writing your html Meta tags. HTML Meta TagsThe following is a breakdown of all Meta tags that are important in optimizing your web pages. There are descriptions of what they are used for and when to use them, as well as parameters to follow in the development of each. Particular attention is paid to the Description and Keyword Meta tags. What are Meta TagsMeta tags are used to describe the page content for search engines. Meta tags are placed within the head of an HTML file and with the exception of the Title tag; are not visible on the viewable area of the page. Writing Meta TagsThe correct writing of HTML Meta tags... <HEAD> The Importance of Meta TagsThe primary reason Met tags are important in search engine positioning is that you have some ability to direct how your pages are described, categorized and indexed by various search engines. However, properly created, even perfect, Meta tags are not enough alone to get you top placement in any of the search engines. In fact, some search engines care little or not at all about certain Meta tags. Which Search Engines support Meta TagsIt’s the crawler-based search engines that have the ability to utilize Meta tags, but not all do. Most search engines will support one Meta tag or the other but only rarely does a search engine support them all. Crawler based search engines include: Google, Teoma, Alta Vista, Inktomi, AllTheWeb, Yahoo Search and others. Directory based search properties like Yahoo Directory and Open Directory do not spider your pages and rely on the description you supply to them when you submit your page. The Meta Description Tag Purpose of the HTML Meta Description Tag... Because the Meta description tag provides the search engines with a brief description of each specific page, they must be page specific... meaning different and unique for each page. What search engines use the Meta Description… Directories, such as Open Directory, are not search engines and generally will rely on the description you provide when you submit your page or site. Guidelines to Writing a Good Meta DescriptionAll keywords and terms optimized for should appear at least once in the description tag. Limiting your description to between 160 and 200 characters, because although some search engines do support more than that when indexing the page, they often will display less in the search results when your page is found. The absolute maximum number of supportable characters is 230. Based on our own research and expriences, using 12 to 30 words while not exceeding the character limit seems to be a good range for most search engines. As a rule of thumb, try to use your most important (primary) kw or term at the beginning of the description, and your most important secondary terms near the beginning. All individual keywords included in the terms being optimized for should appear at least once and no more than three times within the description tag. Never use your Page Title as the first string in your description, it is considered spamm, and frowned upon by many search engines. It’s about finding a balance between the need for an effectively optimized description and one that makes sense to the end user. This will help with conversion by convincing him/her to click on your page when he reads it in his search results. Meta Keyword TagThe Meta keyword tag allows you to list the keywords for the page; however, most search engines do not support this tag. What search engines use the Meta Keywords Tag... Guidelines to Writing a Good Meta Keyword TagList the primary keywords that pertain to that specific page, while putting the most important words at the beginning of the tag. Don't use this tag to “stuff” or repeat keywords. This doesn't help and could hurt with some search engines. The optimal number of keywords should be between 7 and 48 words. If you don't use your keywords within the viewable text of the page, then just adding them to the Meta keywords tag is very unlikely to help with rankings for those keywords. Some web masters and optimizers use the Meta Keyword tag as a place to put alternatives, misspellings, and stemmed versions of their keywords even though they are not on the viewable text. It is not clear whether this helps or not, but I don’t think it hurts other than to dilute the density within the tag. Meta Robots TagAt seo central we use robots.txt as our standard, therefore we do not need to use the Meta robots tag. However I have included a brief description of the proper use of the tag as well as guidelines for proper writing. Purpose of the Meta Robots TagThe Meta Robots tag allows you to control whether or not you want the page to be indexed by search engines. By default, search engine spiders (crawlers) will try to index every page and follow links from one page to the next. The best use of the Meta robots tag is when you want to keep the search engine spiders OUT and not let them index a page. Guidelines to Writing a Meta Robots TagMake certain you double and triple check your code when using this tag. Improperly formatted tags or the wrong usage could keep search engines from indexing your pages or even your entire web site... If you use robots.txt file to block search engine spiders, you do not need to use the Meta robots tag. If you want the search engines to index your site, you really don't need to use the tag either, because the spiders will index by default as that is there purpose, to locate and index pages as a result of following the links from pages already in their index. Always place it in the head of the document. Examples of proper formatting are... 1. <meta name="robots" content="index,follow"> Translation: 1. Index this page and follow all the links to other pages. Note: Never put more than one Meta Robot tag on the page or more than one directive in the content area of the tag. Other Meta TagsThere are many other Meta tags besides the ones we've discussed here, however, none will improve your search engine ranking. Some are for internal search methods and some (such as the revisit tag) have no effect with search engines what so ever. There are some Meta tags such as the "refresh" tag which have been used in the past to "trick" search engine spiders and are now regarded as something to stay clear of as they could hurt your ranking with some search engines. Brief Summary of what Meta Tags are ImportantThe Title Tag is very important, arguably the single most important element of on page optimization. It has full support throughout the search community, so take the time to develop your title tags carefully... making sure you have a good keyword foundation from which to draw and that every page has its own unique tite reflecting the subject and keyword terms being optimized for. Meta Description Tag is also important, with wide support amongst search engines. Meta Keyword Tag is of low importance and has limited support, however it is recommended that you always include it in your HTML document. Meta Robots Tag is only important if you don't want certain pages indexed or you don’t use the robot.txt file. No other Meta Tags are important in search engine ranking. HTML Meta Tag SummaryWriting good Meta tags is but one small part of Optimizing your Pages for Better Positioning within the search community. This can be demonstrated by the fact that there are many pages in search engine indexes that rank well without having any Meta tags at all. Good keyword grouping and assignment, good page titles, and good content are far more important. Once you have good content, focus your attention on no more than two or three main keyword themes per page and then use those words and terms in the Page Title and Meta tags, and repeatedly throughout the on page text... Note... You can certainly include in any given
keyword group, derivatives of your main keyword terms for that page,
as described in our Keyword Selection
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