A Meta tag is an HTML tag that describes the contents of a Web page. Meta tags appear in the first couple of lines of an HTML page, as a direct to the Search Engines. The Meta Tags can affect the way a web site is treated. The Meta Tags are not visible in the web browser.
The most important of the Meta tags for Search Engine Optimization is the Meta "Description". It is recommended that the Meta Description tag be included in each and every HTML page.
The Meta tags for a Website can be viewed in the Internet Explorer Browser from the Page / View Source menu.
The Meta Description Tag
After the page Title, the Meta Description Tag is next in importance for SEO. This tag contains a snippet of information that has a high impact on the volume and quality of traffic that a Website receives. It is a marketing message solely to attract quality visitors – but it can affect the ranking in Google's personalized search results. All the Search Engines provide some support for the Meta Description, some more than others.
The Meta Description Tag is read by the Search Engines and may be shown in the search engine results page. The Meta Description appears (when text can not be extracted to summarize the page) as two lines directly under the title Title in the Search Engine results. Without a description Tag, the Search Engine will use the first few words it sees on your page, which may be irrelevant.
Google, for example, does this if it can not find sufficient text on your page to develop a good page summary on its own.
The Meta Description Tag:
- Should accurately summarize the main theme or content of the Web page.
- Should expand on the page Title.
- Should not duplicate the word of the Title.
- Should be different for each page.
- Could include a few targeted Keywords – but it must read well.
- Should be brief, informative and attractive.
Keep the Meta Description tag as comprehensive as possible within about 160 characters. Check the Search Engine listing that there is no truncation or wasted space. Potential customers have found the URL, and hopefully they will be attracted to the site by the Title and the Description. The average viewer will spend less than one second to glance at the description – so it should be attractive enough to entice the viewer to visit the Website.
The Meta Keywords Tag
There is no search engine that currently uses the keywords Meta tag (it was much abused). MSN used to give some weight to it, Google not at all.
But include the Meta Keyword for your own benefit. The Meta Keywords can be up to 160 characters. It is meaningless if the keywords contained in the tag are not used through the Web page.
The Meta Keywords tag is of great value to the copywriter when constructing a web page. The Keywords should be well chosen, and based on statistically proven web searches. The copy of the web page is then built around the chosen Keywords, ensuring that they are repeated frequently and naturally. When the targeted Keywords and their synonyms have been inserted, each page should have made an easy and meaningful read for the viewer.
Other Meta Tags
There are three Tags, geo.position, geo.placename and geo.region which describe the location of the Website. These tags are unknowingly to be used by any of the Search Engines – instead use Google Places for business, a free local service.
The Robots Meta Tag tells the Search Engine not to index a page.
