A Meta Tag is HTML tag which provides information about a webpage to search engines. It is generally used by diverse search engines at the time when a website’s webpage or I can say that a website goes to index in any search engine and these tags do not affect (belongs) to the webpage look but, shows information about a webpage as what the page is about (shows conclusion), who created the webpage and when, how much keywords (in search engines, highly used words on a specific topic called keywords) the webpage contains, what keywords the webpage contains, is webpage is public or private, should search engine should index (follow) webpage or not and many more. Overall Meta tags used to describe webpage information to search engine. You can include these tags in HTML Head section.
Note: In above image, two important Meta tags are included. First one is Meta Refresh Tag which defines a time interval to reload html document (webpage). And second one is Meta Content-Type Tag which specifies the character encoding for the html document (webpage).
So, we all know that in HTML (Hyper-text Markup Language) Meta Tag category, lots of Meta Tags are present. Each Meta Tag has its own different use. It is really critical to understand (choose) which Meta Tag should commonly use in our webpage and is too most important for our webpage. In order to see this, in this article, now I am going to represent top useful Meta tags and its benefits for our webpage.
The list of top useful Meta Tags are:
1. Meta Description Tag
This is the first most important tag. It is generally used to add little description to your webpage or I can say that to add final words (conclusion) to your webpage. This tag actually helps the search engine to understand your website and to crawl it. So, when you search in different search engines about your website then, after your website title, you will also look a little description which gets indexed by Meta description tag. It is beneficial to visitors shows directly in search results little information about your webpage in term of little description. It is top useful tag in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Following is the way to include Meta Description Tag –
Note: Description in Meta tag should be nearly between 150 to 160 characters including spaces or less than but, description must not be more than 160 characters else this tag will not be optimized by search engines.
2. Meta Keywords Tag
It is considered as second most important Meta tag. It is used to add keywords to your webpage and is beneficial in searching process in search engines. So, it is strongly recommended by me that please choose those keywords based on your website content or I can say that belongs to your website and also try Google Adwords Keywords tool which helps you to determine which keyword is highly used in Google search engine. Different search engine has different keyword tool. All your need to search in that search engine about keyword tool to get access and to choose efficient keywords. Efficient highly used keywords always help your website to get high indexed in search engines and these keywords are helpful to visitors to search easily about your website (related searches). Following is the way to include Meta Keywords Tag –
Note: Keywords in Meta tag should be nearly between 150 to 160 characters including spaces or less than but, keywords must not be more than 170 characters else this tag will not be optimized by search engines.
3. Meta Target Tag
This tag is used to set target (in which country your website should be indexed) to your website. If your website target is global then, it will index worldwide by search engines. In other words, tag is used to indicate that your website should be global index or set at a specific country in search engines. Through global, in every country, it will be indexed through search engines. It is helpful tag in order to increase visiting of your website and through it, your website will be visited in whole world or at specific country in each search engine. Following is the way to include Meta Target Tag –
4. Meta Robots Tag
This tag is used to notify search engines that search engines can index and follow webpage or not. It actually works to give permission to search engines to index and follow webpage or not. If you set ‘No’ then, it will never index and follow your website’s page. Following is the way to include Meta Robots Tag –
5. Meta SPIDERS Tag
Meta SPIDERS Tag is used to crawl the web in search engines. Actually, Spiders are the computer programs created by the search engines which help the search engines to crawl websites and to add it in its database. So, when you add Meta spiders tag then, it gives permission to search engine to access all of your website content and to add it in its database. It is best tag helps to get your content indexed in search engines. Following is the way to include Meta SPIDERS Tag –
6. Meta WEBCRAWLERS Tag
It is similar to Meta spiders tag. It works to give permission to search engines to crawl all of your website’s WebPages. Following is the way to include Meta WEBCRAWLERS Tag –
7. Meta Author Tag
It is used to give the author name to the search engine. Following is the way to include Meta Author Tag –
8. Meta COPYRIGHT Tag
It is used to say to search engines that your website is copyright protected. Whenever anyone publishes your content then, you could take action against him/her. Following is the way to include Meta Copyright Tag –
9. Meta Expires Tag
This tag tells the search engines when your webpage document will be expired and can be removed from the search engines directory. For example, if you specify a webpage expiry date “28 Jan 2014” then after this date, it could be removed in search engine directory. Following is the way to include Meta Expires Tag –
Note: In Meta Expires Tag, You can give content value zero “0″ in order to represent the page deleted. It is also better using the 301 to refer in case of a new page or either the 404 to show not found.
10. Meta Rating Tag
It is used to give rating to your webpage for the appropriateness for kids. The ratings could be general, mature, restricted or 14 years. Following is the way to include Meta Rating Tag
Finally, these above are the top ten best useful Meta tags, I hope you like. Please don’t forget to include all above in your HTML Webpage document in order to get good result and to get indexed fast in search engines…