ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

What are Meta Tags - Search Engine Optimization for Beginners

Updated on June 19, 2013

Header Tags for SEO

Meta Tags are Used in the  section of the HTML page to inform browsers and users about what the page is all about. Head Tags are very important signals for Search Engine Optimization
Meta Tags are Used in the section of the HTML page to inform browsers and users about what the page is all about. Head Tags are very important signals for Search Engine Optimization
Meta Description Tags are not important for SEO but  appear as snippet in search result and could be used to increase CTR by writing compelling copies
Meta Description Tags are not important for SEO but appear as snippet in search result and could be used to increase CTR by writing compelling copies

Why Meta Tags are important for Search Engine Optimization

Even wondered what Meta tags are and how they could be optimized for better search engine performance? Head tags in HTML are important SEO attributes to optimize your page for web.

Meta Tags are very important signals for Search Engines and Users to tell them what the HTML page is all about. It is a tool to inform the browser about the page content, language and other attribute. Meta tags are also vital for informing search engine crawlers how you want your page to be indexed and control link behavior.

Meta tags are parsable text used between the header tags of an HTML page to inform the browsers about the page. In layman terms a Meta Tag is a simple “explanation” of the page so a browser can understand it.

Snapshot of Title Tag in Search Result

Title tags are very important signals for SEO and should be used in a way to optimize important keywords with which you want to optimize your page for web and attract visitors
Title tags are very important signals for SEO and should be used in a way to optimize important keywords with which you want to optimize your page for web and attract visitors

Test Yourself - Title Tag

view quiz statistics

Title Tag - SEO Basics

How to Optimize Title Tags for Search Engines


What does it look like?

<title>Important keywords and key phrases Go Here </title>

Not many people are aware that although appearing in the head section of the page, Title tag is not a Meta tag. The title tag as W3C tells us is a required element as opposed to the Meta tags which are optional.

Title tags are the most important element of a page from the point of view of search engine optimization. Every page of a website is unique and every page should have a unique compelling title copy.

The best practice when writing Meta tag is to start it with the most important keyword through which you want to target your user.

Best practices for writing title tag:

  • Your title tag should ideally be 66 characters long (with spaces)
  • Use Pipes or dash to separate important keywords, key phrases
  • Don't duplicate your title tags
  • Don't use double quotes as search engines may truncate the result at the occurrence of double quotes
  • Do keyword research and create relevant, crisp and concise title tags
  • Don't stuff your title tag with keywords. Make it meaningful and understandable by humans


Snapshot of Meta Description Tag in Google Search

Meta Description Tags could be used to entice users to click your page by writing compelling copies
Meta Description Tags could be used to entice users to click your page by writing compelling copies

Test Yourself - Meta Description

view quiz statistics

Meta Description Tags - SEO for Beginners

The Description Meta Tag

What does it look like?

< Meta name="description" content="Compelling AdCopy Here">

Meta descriptions are not a search engine ranking factor but play an important part in enticing users to click on your page when they query on search engines.

Treat your Meta description as you would your Ad Copy when creating PPC campaigns. Your meta description should tell your reader what the page is all about and why should they visit that page and prefer it over another page which are showing in search result.

  • If you have an offer, special deals, free tutorials, email subscription, you could let your user know so through your Meta description
  • Relevant and crisp descriptions could significantly enhance click through rates (CTR) to your webpage
  • Don't use quotation mark in your Meta description
  • Ideally the length of your description should be 160-166 characters with spaces
  • Use your keywords and key phrases in Meta descriptions as search engine highlight them in their result
  • You may also leave your Meta description empty if you are targeting your page throgh many keywords especially long tails as in case of a blog


Meta Tag Keywords

Meta Keyword Tag - SEO Basics

What does it look like?

< Meta name="keyword" content="important words here">

This tag is mostly outdated and not a factor in search engine ranking. Only Bing and Yahoo use them to determine spam. These days Meta keyword tag works only as a way to tell your competitors about the keywords for which you are optimizing your page. Don’t use this tags is what I’ll advice.


Meta Charset Tag

Charset Meta Tag - Optimizing Header Tags for SEO

What does it look like?

< Meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

All sites must validate charset. In the U.S., that is the UTF-8 tag. It needs to be on your page if you're delivering HTML using English characters.

Test Yourself - Meta Robots

view quiz statistics

Meta Tag Robots - SEO Basics

Meta Robot Tag - Optimizing your page for Web

What does it look like?

The robots Meta tag lets you specify that a particular page should not be indexed by a search engine or if you do or do not want links on the page followed.

1. < META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

THis will tell search engine to keep your page out of their index and not to follow links on your page so that no link juice is passes

2. < META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, NOFOLLOW">

This will tell search engines to index your page but not to follow the links which are present on your page.

3. < META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, FOLLOW">

This will keep your page out of search engines index but links to other pages will be followed

4. < META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">

This will let serch engine crawlers index your page and follow the links from your page to others so that link benefits will be passed to the pages you are linking to from your page.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)