Home - Meta Tags
Learn about meta tags and understand their uses for SEO.
Meta tags contain specific information in order to help search engines categorize a given web page and/or site. There are several types of these tags including description, keywords, language, robots, and location.
Description tags supported mostly by yahoo and bing, provide a detailed description of a given page which is shown when the particular page returns a listing in a search result. Typically google will only use this tag if a search is conducted for the actual page otherwise a snippet is provided. Plain text of this tag is recommended at less than 200 characters.
Example description tag:
<meta name="description" content="description of page."
Keyword tags were mostly relied on by search engines in the mid 1990s but as the act of using keyword tags caught on, their genuine use has deteriorated. Most search engines no longer use this attribute due to their misuse and unreliability.
Example keyword tag:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2"
Language tags tell search engines what language a given site is written in. This meta element is of most use when a website is written in several languages.
Example language tag:
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en, fr"
For language 2 letter codes visit this site.
Robots meta tags tell search engines whether or not to index a page and/or follow the links on that particular page.
For search engines to index a page and follow a page's links, use this tag:
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow"
To tell search engines not to index a page or follow a page's links, use this tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"
Location meta tags are used to indicate the location and/or areas of which a business serves.
Example location tag:
<meta name="zipcode" content="90210"
When placing meta tags with a traditional webdesign program, place them in the head section of a given page like so,
<head>
<title>title of page</title>
<meta name="example"........
</head>
When using a godaddy site with website tonight as the editing program, there is a section provided for description and keyword tags as well as custom meta tags. When on the selected page go upto properties in the toolbar and click on meta data in the drop down list. Use the description and keyword sections for description and keyword tags. For custom tags such as language, location, and robots, click "add meta tag" in the custom meta tags section at the bottom. Using this tool, write your custom meta tags as you normally would with a traditional editing program.
Related Articles and Definitions:
meta tag, description tag, keyword tag, language tag, robots tag, location tag, yahoo, bing, google, godaddy, website tonight
Resources and Related Links:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_element
2. http://www.seologic.com/faq/meta-descriptions.php
3. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
4. http://www.seoconsultants.com/meta-tags/language
5. http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html
6. http://www.yahoo.com/
7. http://www.msn.com/
8. http://www.google.com/
9. https://www.godaddy.com/
10. http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx
Meta tags contain specific information in order to help search engines categorize a given web page and/or site. There are several types of these tags including description, keywords, language, robots, and location.
Description tags supported mostly by yahoo and bing, provide a detailed description of a given page which is shown when the particular page returns a listing in a search result. Typically google will only use this tag if a search is conducted for the actual page otherwise a snippet is provided. Plain text of this tag is recommended at less than 200 characters.
Example description tag:
<meta name="description" content="description of page."
Keyword tags were mostly relied on by search engines in the mid 1990s but as the act of using keyword tags caught on, their genuine use has deteriorated. Most search engines no longer use this attribute due to their misuse and unreliability.
Example keyword tag:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2"
Language tags tell search engines what language a given site is written in. This meta element is of most use when a website is written in several languages.
Example language tag:
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en, fr"
For language 2 letter codes visit this site.
Robots meta tags tell search engines whether or not to index a page and/or follow the links on that particular page.
For search engines to index a page and follow a page's links, use this tag:
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow"
To tell search engines not to index a page or follow a page's links, use this tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"
Location meta tags are used to indicate the location and/or areas of which a business serves.
Example location tag:
<meta name="zipcode" content="90210"
When placing meta tags with a traditional webdesign program, place them in the head section of a given page like so,
<head>
<title>title of page</title>
<meta name="example"........
</head>
When using a godaddy site with website tonight as the editing program, there is a section provided for description and keyword tags as well as custom meta tags. When on the selected page go upto properties in the toolbar and click on meta data in the drop down list. Use the description and keyword sections for description and keyword tags. For custom tags such as language, location, and robots, click "add meta tag" in the custom meta tags section at the bottom. Using this tool, write your custom meta tags as you normally would with a traditional editing program.
Related Articles and Definitions:
meta tag, description tag, keyword tag, language tag, robots tag, location tag, yahoo, bing, google, godaddy, website tonight
Resources and Related Links:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_element
2. http://www.seologic.com/faq/meta-descriptions.php
3. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
4. http://www.seoconsultants.com/meta-tags/language
5. http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html
6. http://www.yahoo.com/
7. http://www.msn.com/
8. http://www.google.com/
9. https://www.godaddy.com/
10. http://www.godaddy.com/hosting/website-builder.aspx
