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Meta tags are short little HTML codes that can be incorporated into your website's code. Many pages don't use these at all, but they are generally used by search engines and help them accurately list your site in their indexes.
Search engines use what are called spider programs. When you submit a site to a search engine, the program will eventually make its way to your site and index it.
The meta tag may give you a say in how your site is indexed if you incorporate them.
What Does this Meta Tag Look Like?
A meta tag is inserted at the top of your document. They should be placed just after the <TITLE> code. The tag generally looks like this <META name= site information content= web content > Now, you would fill in the site information and web content with your own information. It is important that you note there is not a </META> at the end of the tag. It is also important that you do not include any line breaks in the tag, as the some search engines will not index it.
What Do I Include in the Meta Tag?
There are four categories that are used to index a site. These include and would be filled into the slots of site information and web content :
Resource-Type and Document : The resource type here is that the website is a document. This is a simple tag and all that is required for indexing purposes.
Description Content and a Description of Your Page : Depending on the search engine that you are using, this tag is displayed along with the title of your web page in the index. Content would be a word or sentence that describes your page. Keep this short and to the point but ensure that it is an appropriate description of the website.
Keywords and a list of keywords : In this tag you can list several keywords that are appropriate to your website. So if your site was about horses, for example, you could use horse, equine, colt, mare, stallion, gelding, filly, etc. The keyword field would remain the same, while the other is a list of keywords.
Distribution Content and One of Several : The content field would contain either local, global or internal use (iu). This is designed to allow you list available resources that are designed for the pages to be found easily.
Copyright content and Copyright Statement : This one is pretty straight forward. Obviously, you would put your copyright statement in these fields.
How Do I Use Meta Tags?
You do not necessarily need to place a meta tag on every page of your website, but if you do then you have a good chance of ranking fairly high in the search engines. If you want the search engines to find all of your pages and you want them to rank highly, then you would want to include them in all of your pages. This is great if you have useful information on all of your pages.
Action Steps for Meta Tags
1. If you are using keywords, develop a list of keywords that you can place in your meta tags to get the site recognized for those particular sites.
2. If you use the description tag, do not simply use the title of your page but describe the page.
3. Do some homework to see what keywords and descriptions work best for your website's niche.
Important Points About Meta tags
- If you're not an HTML pro, discuss the tags with your web designer. There are also several tools available online that can help you build the tags.
- Recognize the top search engines and research how they index their sites. This could be very useful when developing tags.
- These tags can also be used in sites that use a lot of Flash and similar dynamics.
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