What are Meta Tags

Meta tags are basically HTML codes which are introduced after the title tag into the header on a web page. To know more about what are meta tags, definition of meta tags and what are they used for, read on…
What are Meta Tags
There are countless web pages being designed, coded and tagged everyday around the world. The idea is to be presentable, interactive and give the viewers the maximum knowledge possible. Meta tags play an important role on a web page.

What are Meta Tags?
Meta tag is a coding statement or tag in the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that outlines some elements or features of the contents of a web page. The information given in the meta tag is employed by the Internet search engines to index a page, so that when anyone searches for that type of information, he will be able to find the page. The tag is placed as a part of heading at the top of the HTML in the web page. The tag is written in the usual form i.e. <META name="something" content="something else">

Unlike other tags, it doesn't need an end tag </META>, but it has to be made sure that each tag doesn't include any line breaks.

As per the search engine optimization, when a user refers to meta tags, he is actually referring to the meta description tag and meta keyword tag. Though the meta description tag and the meta keyword tag are not viewed by users, they provide meta document information to user agents like search engines. The meta description tag comprises one or two line description of the page. The meta keyword tag enlists the words or phrases that explains the contents of the page in an optimum way. Both the tags are used by the search engines in putting a page in their index. Sometimes, they are also used to provide the user a summary of the page's contents. Following is an example of simple meta tags for a Book Review site.

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Book review. Reading resources. Discounted books</TITLE>
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="book review, reading resource, discounted books, list discounted books">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A book review and reading resource page including a great list of discounted books">
</HEAD>

What are Meta Tags Used For?
The meta tags in the web pages are used by the search engines as a source of information that serves them to determine how to list or rank a website. However, they don't guarantee to provide a top ranking on crawler-based search engines. They help in identifying the developer of the page, what the page follows, keywords, description and the refresh parameters that will help the page to reload itself or load to another page. They offer the website owner an ability to control the way the web pages are been described by some search engines and also prevent the pages from being indexed. Meta tags can tell a browser what character set to employ or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content or not.

Types of Meta Tags
These tags provide web browsers or search engines directions and data on different types of information. There are many useful meta tags, like the meta http-equiv tag, the meta author tag, the meta robot tag, the meta copyright tag, etc., but the four types of meta tags that are commonly used are:
  • <META name="resource-type" content="document">
    The tag is employed for indexing purposes and the resource type usually used is document.
  • <META name="description" content="a description of your page">
    As per the search engine, the tag will display the contents along with the title of the page in an index. The contents could be a word, sentence or even a paragraph describing the page.
  • <META name="keywords" content="a, list, of, keywords">
    The tag may include appropriate keywords like synonyms separated by commas. For example, if you have a page on cars, you can include keywords like car, cars, vehicles, etc.
  • <META name="distribution" content="one of several">
    The tag lists the possible resources designed to search things easily and the content can be global, local or for Internet use.
Though majority of the search engines also utilize the contents of a page as a method to determine how to index it, the web designer shouldn't forget to include meta tags with appropriate keywords and description. Well-written meta tags can make the page rank higher in the search results. I hope by now you must be having a fair idea of what are meta tags and what are meta tags used for.

By Kanika Khara
Published: 7/22/2009
 
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