METATAGS | Meta Tags and What the Do for SEO

February 23, 2012

What Are the SEO Related METATAGS?:

META TAGS or Metatags are lines of HTML text that reside within the tags of an HTML document. There are generally not seen by the average user (Unless you code your page wrong). These background information snippets have a number reasons for being around. In this frame of reference, (SEO), there are only a few that matter.

SEO related METATAGS In Order of Importance:

Description – A short explanation of what can be found on the page, the theme so to speak.
Keywords – The meat and potatoes of the page. The relevant words or phrases that someone might use to search for your products, services or information
Robots – A method of suggesting to the engines what information to include or not and whether to follow links. Can also be used to suggest where the title and description used in search results come from.

There are many other available tags that classify everything from the author to whether the site contains adult content. Here is a good tutorial / description of metatags.

What Do Meta Tags Look Like in HTML?:

Example of the HTML Text used to produce the UCANSEO Meta Data:

METADATA and METATAGS are part of the foundation for SEO

What SEO Stuff should I put in my Meta Tags?:

Of the three main tags, only the DESCRIPTION metatag needs to be used. The Keywords and Robot tags are less used and often ignored, but given the ever changing crawler ranking algorithms it doesn’t hurt to include Keywords and there are times when Robots will help in preventing negative effects of broken links on no content, link only pages. Some say it these last two are a waste of time, other say they still may help now or in the future. We here at UCANSEO are of the opinion that for the little time it takes to add them, just do it.

The “KEYWORD” METATAG is considered rendered useless by old Black Hat SEO techniques. The crawlers apparently either ignore them or keep a low value assignment to them. For us they act as a reminder of the key words and phrases the page has been optimized for. This will become a set of crib notes to use if the page changes. If the Body Text changes, this can be a reference to make sure all the critical words and phrases are represented.

See Your Pages SEO Meta Tags:

The method for viewing the raw code differs by browser, here is how to view raw html source for a webpage.

All MetaTags should be within the section. If they are missing, in any other section than the "HEAD" or the same tag appears more than once, they are wrong and will not help SEO and could very possibly be harming your organic SEO ranking.

Why Bother with SEO MetaTags and Data?:

The “Description” METATAG is the highest priority tag to get in. It is your Elevator Sales Pitch, your one minute of fame. Search Engines often, but not always, use the “Description” tag just under the information in the Title tag as what it says about your site. This is like a free ad! Put a strong Marketing Message here. Why they should click through.

The “Keyword” METATAG is the red headed step child of the SEO bag of tricks. While it is legitimate and fully compliant with internet standards, it has been used and abused so much that it can actually hurt your rankings if used wrong, and may not help much if used right. But all things SEO are cumulative and always in flux. If used correctly it could have an additive effect for your overall ranking as the dynamics of ranking change. If nothing else it acts as a reminder of the keywords the page has been optimized for.

The “Robots” METATAG this tag is generally not needed, but can come in handy if you want a crawler or spider to Not to include content or follow links. It can also help if a Search Engine is displaying incorrect or outdated Titles and Descriptions of your page.

Tips for using the Keyword Tag:

Do Not Stuff with keywords that are not elsewhere on the page.
Do not repeat the same words over and over.
Putting in the possible misspellings of keywords really doesn’t work anymore as most Search Engines either correct spellings or offer recommendations for the correct spelling.
Keep the overall length to fewer than 900 characters. Yes, we have found that recommendation as an upper limit, In reality pick your keywords and phrases, say between one and thirty words total.

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