Meta Tags. What They Are and Why To Use Them

Meta tags are employed both by search engines, and in an indirect way by people.

Are meta tags critical? Every search engines emphasizes meta tags differently. Google doesn't let the public know how it uses meta tags. I have noticed that a lot of websites show up on the first page of Google for specific subjects and yet they don't have any keyword or description tags. So don't let anybody fool you by exaggerating how important they are for Search Engine Optimization. Search engines index algorithms vary greatly -- some assign a lot of importance to meta tags, so it is a good idea to use them.

Meta tags are "invisible" lines of code embedded into web pages. The search engines utilize these bits of code to decide what category a web page falls under, although a person simply viewing the page in a web browser can't see them (but read below about the description tag). There are three types of meta tags that we are concerned with. Keywords, descriptions, and titles. You can leave out keywords and descriptions, but visitors will see "untitled page" in their web browser, and your site will look funny if you don't use a "title" tag.

In order to grab traffic, years ago, meta tags would be "stuffed" with repetitive information, or information that has nothing to do with the web page. Search engines still check to be certain that the keywords in meta tags are relevant; however they don't give much weight to keywords in meta tags, thereby penalizing this abuse. In any case, if you don't include meta tags, or they are filled with useless keywords, you will not rank well overall.

The "head" section of a web page is where meta tags are found. Some people suggest using only lowercase letters in your tags, and avoid repeating terms within the keyword tag.

Generally speaking, the actual meta tag contents appear invisible; however the "description" meta tag's contents will turn up in the majority of search engines together with the page title in the search results. Do not overdo your meta description; you can place keywords in the description tag, but try to keep language natural, in complete sentences, and keep it short and relevant.