HTML Meta Tags HTML Meta Tags
HTML Meta Tags Tutorial and Information







HTML Tutorial - HTML Meta Tags

The HTML Meta Elements (also known as Meta Tags) provide Metadata about a HTML document and are placed inside the head section of a web page. Every single web page in a web site must have Meta elements (or meta tags).

The most important elements (or tags) in the head section of an HTML document are the title element, the description element, and the keywords element. Those Meta elements are usually referred to as Meta Tags, which are very important for search engine optimization. However, Meta tags should not be looked at as a SEO-cure-all, and are definitely not the only aspect to pay attention to when it comes to search engine optimization. But, the Meta tags do represent one very important factor in search engine optimization.

The Title Tag or Title Element

As described in HTML Head, every HTML page must have a title tag. (title element) The title tag identifies the content of a HTML document and basically headlines the content of your HTML page. Most search engines use the title of a web page as a headline in their search results pages. Therefore the title should be short and catchy, and reflect the content of the web page.
For Example: If you are creating a web page for a health food store which goes by the name of "The Santa Monica Health Food Store" and your web page's content is about organic food, the title tag of this HTML document should look something like this: 
<html>
<head>
<title>The Santa Monica Health Food Store - Organic Food</title>
</head>
<body>

The Description Tag or Description Element

The description Meta tag lets HTML authors or web designers add a short description of the content of their web page to their HTML document. Some search engines use the description Meta tag of a web page to describe the main link (the title tag) in their search results pages. However, most bigger search engines draw the description in their search results page from the content of the actual web page, I would still recommend using the description Meta tag. Here is what your description Meta tag should look like: 
<html>
<head>
<title>The Santa Monica Health Food Store - Organic Food</title>
<meta name="description" content="Information about organic food from the 
Santa Monica Health Food Store.">
</head>
<body>

The Keyword Tag or Keyword Element

The keyword Meta tag lets HTML authors add a short list of keywords under which they want their web page to be found in search engines or search directories. Most search engines actually do consider the keywords specified in the keywords Meta tag. Here are some tips about how to write your keywords Meta tag:

  • The keywords should describe the content of your web page as closely as possible.
  • The keywords entered in the keywords Meta tag should also be contained in the text of the web page's body.
  • The keyword Meta tag should not contain more than 10 keywords, and the keywords should be specifically selected for every single web page within your web site in order to describe that particular page's content.
  • Keywords must be separated by commas.
<html>
<head>
<title>The Santa Monica Health Food Store - Organic Food</title>
<meta name="description" content="Information about organic food from the 
Santa Monica Health Food Store.">
<meta name="keywords" content="organic, food, health, 
Santa Monica, store, information, info">
</head>
<body>

Other Meta Tags

Meta tags can not only be used to specify the title, description, and the keywords for an HTML document. The Meta tags in the head can also be used to specify the HTML document author's name, document character encoding, style sheet, language, copyright information, the date, spider or robots instructions, and other important information. Here are some of the most commonly used Meta tags: 
<html>
<head>
<title>The Santa Monica Health Food Store - Organic Food</title>
<meta name="description" content="Information about organic food from the 
Santa Monica Health Food Store.">
<meta name="keywords" content="organic, food, health, 
Santa Monica, store, information, info">
<meta name="owner" content="Santa Monica Health Food Store">
<meta name="author" content="John Doe - Webmaster">
<meta name="copyright" content="© Santa Monica Health Food Inc.">
<meta http-equiv="expires" content="2008-08-06T08:49:37+00:00">
<meta http-equiv="charset" content="ISO-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="English">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">
<meta name="date" content="2007-08-06T08:49:37+00:00">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css" />
</head>
<body>

Meta Name Owner

This Meta tag indicates the owner of the web page.

Meta Name Author

This Meta tag indicates the author's name.

Meta Name Copyright

This Meta tag is used to specify copyright information.

Meta HTTP Expires

This Meta tag is used to indicate the date of expiry.

Meta HTTP Charset

This Meta tag indicates the character encoding for a web page.

Meta HTTP Language

This Meta tag indicates the language of the web page's content.

Meta Name Robots

This Meta tag contains instructions for robots and spiders. (Recommended)

Meta Name Revisit After

This Meta tag tells search engine spiders or robots when to revisit this web page. (when new content is being added)

Meta Name Date

This Meta tags adds the date to your HTML document head

Meta Link Stylesheet

This Meta tag tells the browser where to find the style sheet (CSS - Cascading Style Sheet) for the web page.

As mentioned in the beginning of this tutorial, not all of the Meta tags listed above are mandatory to include with your HTML document. However, the title, description, and keyword Meta tags are very important for search engine optimization, and every HTML document should include these 3 important Meta tags. I also recommend the robots Meta tag, telling search engine spiders and robots to crawl the entire web site. If the content of the web page is being updated every week, you should tell the search engine spiders to revisit the web page after 7 days. In order to get your HTML document XHTML validated, you will need to include the Meta HTTP Charset tag indicating the character encoding for your web page. These would be the most important Meta tags and I recommend using them wisely.

For more information about Meta Tags and the HTML document Head click here.

For detailed information about Meta Tags click here.



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