The Use of Meta Tags For Search Engine Optimization
- November 7th, 2008
- Posted in General News, Website design
If you’re struggling to have your website pages and information appear in top results of a search engine, or if you want your web article, document/links to appear on a higher rank in a search engine then you need to learn about Meta Tags.
Meta Tags are text that is only seen by search engines. They can be used to identify the owner/creator of the page, the title, the keywords and description of the page, and the refresh parameter (which can be used to cause the page to reload itself, or to redirect a user from one Web page to another automatically). These are just a few of the common uses. There are many more!
There are two types of META tags:
HTTP-EQUIV- This type of Meta Tag is similar to HTTP headers. (The HTTP header is the information that is transmitted after a request is made for your web page.) It contains information which is useful to the web browser explaining how to display your page. HTTP-EQUIV Meta tags usually control or direct the actions of Web browsers, and are used to further refine the information which is provided by the actual headers.
Here is an example of the HTTP-EQUIV tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0">
(This tag is used to refresh or reload a page)
NAME (attribute)- These tags can be used by your search engine in order to project what is on your web page. They do not correspond to normal HTTP headers. The Name attribute can be anything you like. Common uses are “Author”, “Description”, “Keywords”. For Example, <META AUTHOR=, <META KEYWORDS=, and so on.
Here is another example of the NAME Meta Tag attribute:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A tutorial on TutorialBlog.com covering the basic and advanced uses of META tags.">
(This tag was used to describe a page or site)
Use Keywords for Search Engines
Many search engines will use the name attributes in the meta tag to properly index your pages.
Example:
This meta element defines keywords for your page:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, XHTML, JavaScript, VBScript">
How to format your Meta Tags:
The META tag is part of the header information of an HTML document. It has a start tag but does not have a corresponding end tag. The tag is placed after the TITLE end tag. More than one META tag can be used within a document, depending on the type of information that you want to provide.
Example:
The Meta Tag is placed in the header section of the HTML document, after the </TITLE> tag.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>PPP For TutorialBlog.com</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=”DESCRIPTION” CONTENT=”This document on TutorialBlog.com describes how to use the Meta Tags for SEO and more.”>
</HEAD>
The META tag is formatted as a name/value pair, where NAME or HTTP-EQUIV identifies the name or property and CONTENT identifies the property value. You can use NAME and HTTP-EQUIV interchangeably. (When using NAME, the interpretation of the attribute is left up to the browser; whereas the HTTP protocol will interpret HTTP-EQUIV attributes.)
There you go! I hope you can put this Meta Tags Tutorial to great use!
Here is an HTML/XHTML tag reference:
DTD: indicates in which XHTML 1.0 DTD the tag is allowed. S=Strict, T=Transitional, and F=Frame-set
| Start tag | Purpose | DTD |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Tags | ||
| <!DOCTYPE> | Defines the document type | STF |
| <html> | Defines an html document | STF |
| <body> | Defines the body element | STF |
| <h1> to <h6> | Defines header 1 to header 6 | STF |
| <p> | Defines a paragraph | STF |
| <br> | Inserts a single line break | STF |
| <hr> | Defines a horizontal rule | STF |
| <!–…–> | Defines a comment | STF |
| Char Format | ||
| <b> | Defines bold text | STF |
| <font> | Deprecated. Defines text font, size, and color | TF |
| <i> | Defines italic text | STF |
| <em> | Defines emphasized text | STF |
| <big> | Defines big text | STF |
| <strong> | Defines strong text | STF |
| <small> | Defines small text | STF |
| <sup> | Defines superscripted text | STF |
| <sub> | Defines subscripted text | STF |
| <bdo> | Defines the direction of text display | STF |
| <u> | Deprecated. Defines underlined text | TF |
| Output | ||
| <pre> | Defines preformatted text | STF |
| <code> | Defines computer code text | STF |
| <tt> | Defines teletype text | STF |
| <kbd> | Defines keyboard text | STF |
| <var> | Defines a variable | STF |
| <dfn> | Defines a definition term | STF |
| <samp> | Defines sample computer code | STF |
| <xmp> | Deprecated. Defines preformatted text | |
| Blocks | ||
| <acronym> | Defines an acronym | STF |
| <abbr> | Defines an abbreviation | STF |
| <address> | Defines an address element | STF |
| <blockquote> | Defines a long quotation | STF |
| <center> | Deprecated. Defines centered text | TF |
| <q> | Defines a short quotation | STF |
| <cite> | Defines a citation | STF |
| <ins> | Defines inserted text | STF |
| <del> | Defines deleted text | STF |
| <s> | Deprecated. Defines strikethrough text | TF |
| <strike> | Deprecated. Defines strikethrough text | TF |
| Links | ||
| <a> | Defines an anchor | STF |
| <link> | Defines a resource reference | STF |
| Frames | ||
| <frame> | Defines a sub window (a frame) | F |
| <frameset> | Defines a set of frames | F |
| <noframes> | Defines a noframe section | TF |
| <iframe> | Defines an inline sub window (frame) | TF |
| Input | ||
| <form> | Defines a form | STF |
| <input> | Defines an input field | STF |
| <textarea> | Defines a text area | STF |
| <button> | Defines a push button | STF |
| <select> | Defines a selectable list | STF |
| <optgroup> | Defines an option group | STF |
| <option> | Defines an item in a list box | STF |
| <label> | Defines a label for a form control | STF |
| <fieldset> | Defines a fieldset | STF |
| <legend> | Defines a title in a fieldset | STF |
| <isindex> | Deprecated. Defines a single-line input field | TF |
| Lists | ||
| <ul> | Defines an unordered list | STF |
| <ol> | Defines an ordered list | STF |
| <li> | Defines a list item | STF |
| <dir> | Deprecated. Defines a directory list | TF |
| <dl> | Defines a definition list | STF |
| <dt> | Defines a definition term | STF |
| <dd> | Defines a definition description | STF |
| <menu> | Deprecated. Defines a menu list | TF |
| Images | ||
| <img> | Defines an image | STF |
| <map> | Defines an image map | STF |
| <area> | Defines an area inside an image map | STF |
| Tables | ||
| <table> | Defines a table | STF |
| <caption> | Defines a table caption | STF |
| <th> | Defines a table header | STF |
| <tr> | Defines a table row | STF |
| <td> | Defines a table cell | STF |
| <thead> | Defines a table header | STF |
| <tbody> | Defines a table body | STF |
| <tfoot> | Defines a table footer | STF |
| <col> | Defines attributes for table columns | STF |
| <colgroup> | Defines groups of table columns | STF |
| Styles | ||
| <style> | Defines a style definition | STF |
| <div> | Defines a section in a document | STF |
| <span> | Defines a section in a document | STF |
| Meta Info | ||
| <head> | Defines information about the document | STF |
| <title> | Defines the document title | STF |
| <meta> | Defines meta information | STF |
| <base> | Defines a base URL for all the links in a page | STF |
| <basefont> | Deprecated. Defines a base font | TF |
| Programming | ||
| <script> | Defines a script | STF |
| <noscript> | Defines a noscript section | STF |
| <applet> | Deprecated. Defines an applet | TF |
| <object> | Defines an embedded object | STF |
| <param> | Defines a parameter for an object | STF |
I have a couple of questions:
Is there a search engine that uses the meta keywords? Which one?
Is the content of the description meta tag be different then the h1 tag content?
I think all search engines use meta keywords. I don’t have an answer to the first question.
1) There are some search engines that use meta keywords still..however there are those that don’t due to web developers abusing them. Most that still offer meta tag options offer free service.
2) No not always, a lot of times the content will and can be the same. The meta tag content can be same as the h1 content…they are interchangeable and can be used alike.
Hope this helped.
[...] The Use of Meta Tags For Search Engine Optimization [...]
Nice tutorial! The simplified tag list is handy.
One thing you should mention so that the uninitiated do not get confused:
All of your tags in your HTML examples are in uppercase, which is legal in HTML 4.01. In order to be XHTML compliant however, they need to be converted to lowercase.
Echoing some of the other comments…
I’ve heard from SEO experts that say Google emphasizes semantic code over META tags because of what Joel says, it has the potential to be abused. Still, you should use META tags, but put pertinent content in one (and only one) H1 tag at the top of your pages, followed by content, followed by H2 tag, followed by content, etc.
Also, furthering what Greg says, in XHTML META tags are “empty elements”, meaning they should end with /> (slash greater than)
How old is this article?
Are you kidding me? Major search engines have been ignoring meta keywords for a long, long time now.
Confirmed. Google stopped using meta keywords a long time ago. Meta description still has value, though.
I believe most search engines now place much more emphasis on title tags, h1 tags, etc. Meta data is mostly redundant.
There are many websites/start-ups that don’t ONLY rely on major search engines. Believe it or not there are many other venues of search engine advertising besides big corporate entities like Google or Yahoo. And several of these advertising agencies and/or services still rely *partly* on the use of meta tags.
Just because Meta Tags have been “outdated” by several major search engines, its does NOT make the process of using Meta Tags obsolete. Meta Tags are NOT only used for search engines as well..they have great use within the website as well for indexing and proper searches.
-Joel R.
Some days it’s like I’m taking crazy pills, to this end I’d like to correct your points listed above.
META Keywords and Description have zero effect on your sites placement, I repeat META TAGS HAVE ZERO EFFECT ON YOUR SITES PLACEMENT, and it has been this way since 2001.
However, description can be used to display a marketing message below your sites listing and if you want words to be highlighted in this then its best to drop in your keyterms in a suitable place.
Also in your article you have a refresh of zero which would stop spiders from indexing your site.
“META Keywords and Description have zero effect on your sites placement, I repeat META TAGS HAVE ZERO EFFECT ON YOUR SITES PLACEMENT, and it has been this way since 2001″
This is a too “in-general” comment that can be applied to anything pertaining to Meta Tags and Keywords. Truth is Meta Tags may not have all that much effect with search engines like Yahoo or Google, however there are directories, indexing sites, and advertising pages that do use Meta Tags and Keywords for placement. I understand where your statement is coming from, and I’m not suggesting that its completely incorrect, however the first part of your comment was very broad.
Thank You! For your comments, tips, and ideas!
Thank You to ALL who commented once again! Your input is vital!