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Meta Tags :: A Basic overview of their usage and format.
By: Jeremy Skeels Published: 01/17/2004
Intro:
With the millions of new web pages added to the internet every day, smart webmasters
will employ every possible means of getting their pages noticed. Meta Tags are a very powerful tool that might
give your site the edge it needs to succeed in such a highly competitive market. They however, are defiantly not
the magical solution for internet success, they are however a tool that should be utilized. Currently only about
20% of pages on the internet have webmasters smart enough to include them.
Meta Tags Overview:
What are meta tags you ask? To put it simply meta tags allow you to communicate additional
information about your site to the users browser or search engines spiders and bots. The most used tags are the
title, description and keyword tags, however there are several more that should defiantly not be overlooked.
The List :
There are literally dozens of meta tags that are in use on the web today, however
most have little or no real value to the average webmaster. We will discuss the top 12 meta tags and their proper
usage. We are also going to include the title tag as well, even though it is not technically a meta tag it is one
of the most important tags you will use on your site.
The Title Tag :
The Title Tag is arguably the most important HTML tag on your entire page. It is
also used by every major search engine on the web today. This tag's importance comes from the fact that it not
only provides searchable data to the search engine, but it is also usually displayed on the search results page.
With that being said, you should now realize that the few words you place in your title will either result in a
visitor coming to your site or going else ware. Think of it as a short one sentence advertisement for your page.
Usage : <TITLE>YOUR TITLE
GOES HERE</TITLE>
The Description Tag :
The description tag is almost as important as the title tag, and is used in conjunction
with the title tag in several major search engines. This tag should be a short concise description of the content
of your page. It should, like the title tag be considered as an advertisement for your site. Also please be aware
that the limit for the description tag in most search engines in 255 characters, so that is a good length to aim
for.
Usage : <META NAME="DESCRIPTION"
CONTENT="YOUR DESCRIPTION GOES HERE">
The Keywords Tag :
The keywords tag provides you with the ability to list words that you think
are relevant to your page. The keywords can be separated by either a space or a comma. This tag is one of the most
widely abused tag there is and search engines will give your site a much lower rating if they think your including
non relevant keywords just to boost your ranking. My suggestion is that you only use words that are relevant to
the current page. Also try keep the total length to about 255 characters as most search engines limit them to that.
Usage : <META NAME="KEYWORDS"
CONTENT="YOUR KEYWORDS GO HERE">
The Abstract Tag :
The abstract tag is only supported by a few search engines and is basically exactly
the same as the description tag. I recommend using it for compatibility purposes.
Usage : <META NAME="ABSTRACT" CONTENT="YOUR DESCRIPTION GOES HERE">
The Author Tag :
This tag is self explanatory. It simply credits the author of the current page.
Usage : <META NAME="AUTHOR"
CONTENT="AUTHOR NAME">
The Copyright Tag :
This tag is used to designate copyright information for the current page.
Usage : <META NAME="COPYRIGHT"
CONTENT="COPYRIGHT OWNER">
The Robots Tag :
The robots tag is used to control search engine spiders activity on your site. There
are six directives that can be passed and they are described below.
ALL - Designates that page should be indexed and all links should be followed.
NONE - Designates that page should not be index and links should not be followed.
INDEX - Designates that page should be indexed.
NOINDEX - Designates that page should not be indexed.
FOLLOW - Designates links should be followed.
NOFOLLOW Designates links should not be followed.
Usage : <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="ALL">
<META NAME="ROBOTS"
CONTENT="NONE">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,NOFOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">
The Revisit Tag :
This tag is used to tell search engine spiders how often they should return to your
page to re-index. This tag is highly recommended if you change your content regularly. It can also boost your ratings
in search engines that rate sites according to submission date.
Usage : <META NAME="REVISIT-AFTER" CONTENT="X Days">
The Distribution Tag :
This tag is used to designate the intended distribution for the current page. Valid
settings are Global, Local or IU which stands for "Internal Use". Unless you wish to restrict your audience
either set this tag to global or simply exclude it.
Usage : <META NAME="DISTRIBUTION" CONTENT="GLOBAL">
The Language Tag :
This tag is used to designate the language that the current page is written in. The
language is specified by a two or three character code. Click
here to view a list of valid language codes.
Usage : <META NAME="LANGUAGE"
CONTENT="EN">
The Expires Tag :
This tag is used to
Usage : <META NAME="EXPIRES" CONTENT="COPYRIGHT OWNER">
The Refresh Tag :
This tag is used to automatically reload the page or to redirect to another page
after a specified number of seconds. Use of this tag is not recommended on most sites since many search engines
frown upon it's use. We recommend that you only use it when absolutely necessary if at all.
Usage : <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH"
content="30;URL=http://www.yoursite.com">
The No-Cache Tag :
This tag is used when you want to stop your visitors browser from caching your web
page. This is useful if your site content changes constantly and you want to ensure your visitors see the most
current version of your page. For compatibility across more browsers I suggest using both of the tags listed below.
Usage : <META HTTP-EQUIV="PRAGMA" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">
Additional :<META HTTP-EQUIV="CACHE-CONTROL"
CONTENT="NO-CACHE">
Summary :
There are many many more meta tags in use around the web today, however most of them
are of little or no use to the majority of webmasters. As new meta tags are introduced that we feel are of significant
interest we will add them to this page. If you have any questions or comments please send them in.
Additional Meta Tag Links :
- Meta Generator - A free web based utility to generate your meta tags.
- MetaBlaster - A powerful automated meta tag management cgi script.
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