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META Tag Guide
Guide Overview
You've got an idea and developed a website. Now learn how to get top placement in search engines with our comprehensive META tag guide which disects the top used tags and how to effectively use them.
What Are META Tags
META Tags are HTML tags which provide information that describes the content of the webpages a user will be viewing. Search engines have recognized that website owners and administrators can use this resource to control their positioning and descriptions in search engine results. Many search engines have now incorporated reading META tags as part of their indexing formulas. The goal of this guide is to help webmasters understand the most frequent META tags, their application and usage. From below, select those META tags which you would like to learn about.
Abstract META Tag (Suggested)
The Abstract Tag defines a brief abstraction of your website ...
Author META Tag (Optional)
The Author Tag declares who is the author of the document ...
Copyright META Tag (Optional)
The Copyright Tag defines any copyright information about the document ...
Description META Tags (Strongly Suggested)
The Description Tag is a general description of what is contained in your webpage ...
Distribution META Tag (Optional)
The Distribution Tag defines the level of distribution of the present document ...
Expires META Tag (Optional)
The Expires Tag declares to search engines when the content on your website will expire ...
Keyword META Tag (Strongly Suggested)
The Keyword Tag is a series of keywords that represents the content of your site ...
Language META Tag (Optional)
The Language Tag defines the language used on your webpage ...
Refresh META Tag (Not Suggested)
The Refresh Tag defines the number of seconds before refreshing your webpage ...
Revisit META Tag (Suggested)
The Revisit Tag defines how many days the search engine should revisit your webpage ...
Robots META Tag (Suggested)
The Robots Tag declares to search engines what content to index and spider ...
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Abstract META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Abstract Tag defines a brief abstraction of your website
The Abstract META tag is very similar to the description Meta tag, except its an abstraction or a brief summary of the description META tag. Generally the Abstract META tag is a one line sentence which gives an overview of the entire webpage. Although search engines do not as often use this tag, it is a useful complement to search engines that read the first few lines of text of your webpages.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Abstract"
General Usage: <META name="Abstract" content="Abstract phrase">
Search Engines Usage
Although not many search engines look specifically for the Abstract META tag, it adds a generalization of your webpage into your page's headers which search engines read and often when archiving webpages.
Recommended Usage: Suggested
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Author META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Author Tag declares who is the author of the document
The author META tag defines the name of the author of the document being read. This tag is not widely supported but is recognized as part of the META Tag standard. Supported data formats include the name, email address of the webmaster, company name or Internet address (URL). The most common format is to insert the name of the person or organization and a contact email address. For example: Webmaster (webmaster@submitcorner.com)
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Author"
General Usage: <META name="Author" content="Author Information">
Search Engines Usage
Although not many search engines look specifically for the Author META tag, it clearly defines who is the author and/or the responsible party for making updates to the webpage(s).
Recommended Usage: Optional - Use if needed
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Copyright META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Copyright Tag defines any copyright information about the document
The copyright META tag defines any copyright statements you wish to disclose about your webpage documents. You may wish to indicate any trademark names, patent numbers, copyright or other information which you want to publicly disclose as your intellectual property. The Copyright META tag is a freeform copyright statement which conforms to other META tag standards as shown below.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Copyright"
General Usage: <META name="Copyright" content="Copyright Statement">
Search Engines Usage
Although not many search engines look specifically for the Copyright META tag, it clearly specifies the terms of ownership or licensing arrangements directly in the headers of your webpage. Generally, search engines do not read and/or store this information.
Recommended Usage: Optional - Use if you want to indicate your work is copyrighted
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Description META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Description Tag is a general description of what is contained in your webpage
Search engines that support META tags will often display the Description META tag along with your title in their results. Search engines will often capture the entire META tag of your description field, but webmasters should bear in mind that when a search engine displays the results to a user, the space is limited, usually under 20 words which you can use to grab the attention of a user. For this reason, when creating your META tags, webmasters should make the first sentence of their description field to capture the attention of a user and use the rest of the description tag to elaborate further.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Description"
General Usage: <META name="Description" content="Your description">
Code Generator: Create Description META Tag for me [Click Button Below]
Search Engines Usage
The Description and Keyword Meta Tags are the two principle META tags that search engines look for when indexing your website. The description and keywords that you provide are likely the words that will show up in results, so make sure that you put the most energy and thought into the text you use to describe your website.
Recommended Usage: Strongly Recommended
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Distribution META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Distribution Tag defines the level of distribution of the present document
The distribution META tag defines the level or degree of distribution of your webpage and how it should be classified in relation to methods of distribution on the world wide web. There are currently only three forms of distribution supported by the distribution tag: Global (indicates that your webpage is intended for mass distribution to everyone), Local (intended for local distribution of your document), and IU - Internal Use (not intended for public distribution).
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Distribution"
Supported Distributions: Global | Local | IU
General Usage: <META name="Distribution" content="Global">
Note: Only use one of the above
Search Engines Usage
The Distribution Meta Tag is not a commonly used tag because most web page authors intend for their distribution to be set to everyone or for Global distribution. Nearly all webmasters can skip this tag unless you want to restrict the viewer size, in which most cases, using the Robots META tag is a better idea.
Recommended Usage: Optional - Generally not needed
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Expires META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Expires Tag declares to search engines when the content on your website will expire
The Expires META tag defines the expiration date and time of the document being indexed. If your website is running a limited time event or there is a preset date when your document will no longer be valid, you should include the Expires tag to indicate to search engines when to delete your webpage from their database.
The expires tag is commonly used in conjunction with the Revisit Tag as a means to get search engines to re-visit a website every few days. This is commonly used by websites who update their content frequently and want search engines to have a fresh copy of their content.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Expires"
General Usage: <META name="Expires" content="Tue, 01 Jun 1999 19:58:02 GMT">
Note: Requires RFC1123 date as shown above
Search Engines Usage
The Expires Meta Tag is principally used as a means to indicate to search engines a fixed date when they should remove your page from their database. If your page will expire at a preset date, it is advisable to set this tag a day or two before you plan the expiry such that search engines have time to remove you and avoid users getting an an expired document or an error.
Recommended Usage: Optional - Use if you have a preset document deletion date
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Keywords META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Keywords Tag is a series of keywords that represents the content of your site
Search engines that support META tags will often use the keywords found on your pages as a means to categorize your website based on the search engines indexing algorithms (proprietary algorithms which index your website in search engine databases). Ensure you choose keywords that are relevant to your site and avoid excessive repetition as many search engines will penalize your rankings for attempting to abuse their system. Similar to the Description META Tag, search engines give priority to the first few words in your description, so focus on your main keywords and then elaborate further by using synonyms or other related words.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Keywords"
General Usage: <META name="Keywords" content="first, second, third">
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: When creating keywords for your website, do not infringe on other companies trademarks or copyrights. Many companies have filed and won lawsuits for attempting to "hijack" traffic to competitors from search engines.
Search Engines Usage
The Keyword and Description Meta Tags are the two principle META tags that search engines look for when indexing your website. The description and keywords that you provide are likely the words that will show up in results, so make sure that you put the most energy and thought into the text you use to describe your website.
Recommended Usage: Strongly Recommended
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Language META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Language Tag defines the language used on your webpage
The Language META tag declares to users the natural language of the document being indexed. Search engines which index websites based on language often read this tag to determine which language(s) is supported. This tag is particularly useful for non-english and multiple language websites.
META Tag Usage
HTTP-EQUIV: "Content-Language"
Supported Languages: All RFC1766 compliant languages. A small excerpt of available languages is found below:
BG (Bulgarian)
CS (Czech)
DA (Danish)
DE (German)
EL (Greek)
EN (English)
EN-GB (English-Great Britain)
EN-US (English-United States)
ES (Spanish)
ES-ES (Spanish-Spain)
FI (Finnish)
HR (Croatian)
IT (Italian)
FR (French)
FR-CA (French-Quebec)
FR-FR (French-France)
IT (Italian)
JA (Japanese)
KO (Korean)
NL (Dutch)
NO (Norwegian)
PL (Polish)
PT (Portuguese)
RU (Russian)
SV (Swedish)
ZH (Chinese)
General Usage: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" content="EN">
Search Engines Usage
The Language META Tag is not used very often by search engines although if your web page is not English or has more than one language, you may want to use this META tag to indicate to search engines that your site is multi-lingual and to indicate which languages are supported.
Recommended Usage: Optional - For non-english / multi-lingual sites
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Refresh META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Refresh Tag defines the number of seconds before refreshing your webpage
The refresh META tag is used as a way to redirect or refresh users to another webpage after X number of seconds. This META tag is often used as a "bridge" page which is accessed first by users and are then redirected to another webpage. Some search engines discourage this type of META tag because it opens opportunity for users to spam search engines with similar pages which all lead to the same page. In addition, this also makes many of the search engines databases cluttered with irrelevant and multiple versions of the same data.
META Tag Usage
META HTTP-EQUIV: "Refresh"
General Usage: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" content="X;URL=http://www.website.com/index.html">
Note: X indicates delay in seconds
URL indicates the URL to redirect to
Search Engines Usage
The Refresh META Tag is not a META tag which should be used on pages you submit to search engines. Most search engines have algorithms that will detect the Refresh tag and may either setup their system to ignore the particular page, your entire site or may even ban your host entirely. For this reason, we strongly suggest you do not use this tag.
Recommended Usage: Not Recommended for use
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Revisit META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Revisit Tag defines how many days the search engine should revisit your webpage
The Revisit META tag defines how often a search engine or spider should come to your website for re-indexing. Often this tag is used for websites that change their content often and on a regular basis. This tag can also be beneficial in boosting your rankings if search engines display results based on the most recent submissions.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Revisit-After"
General Usage: <META name="Revisit-After" content="X Days">
Note: X indicates a number
Search Engines Usage
The Revisit META Tag is used by search engines as a means to indicate how often a web page should be revisited for re-indexing. This tag is supported by many search engines and should be made use of if your content changes on a regular basis.
Recommended Usage: Suggested for web sites that update content on a regular basis
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Robots META Tag
By Submit Corner
Overview: The Robots Tag declares to search engines what content to index and spider
Robots, also known as spiders, are automated mechanisms that spider your site, or search your site on how to categorize the information you submitted to the search engine. Typically, a website owner would submit the main page and the robots would visit your site and collect all subpages and related links from your main page. However, this tag enables you to control which pages you would like spidered, and which to ignore. For instance, certain webpages and directories (ie: CGI Scripts) you may not want indexed in the search engines. Using the robots tag, you can define which pages to follow, which to index and which to ignore completely.
META Tag Usage
META Name: "Robots"
Supported Types: noindex | index | nofollow | follow
General Usage: <META name="Robots" content="index,follow">
Search Engines Usage
The Robots META Tag is used by search engines as a means to indicate the level of spidering a search engine should do. Most search engines look for this META tag and will only index and/or spider the pages you want to be indexed.
Recommended Usage: Suggested
META Tag Guide Article Source :
http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/Meta/
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Meta Tags & Meta Tag Tips
The Truth About Meta Tags
Meta tags alone are not the answer to all problems. In fact many leading search engine optimization experts are phasing out in the usage of some meta tags, why? When the web was small these meta tags were great tools to help organize the web.
Why Meta Tags Are Not Extremely Important
As the web grew, so did the potential to exploit it and commercial greed caused "spammers" to abuse the meta keyword tag and meta description tag by putting unrelated words in these tags, some many times over. If you look at some real third tier web search engines that allow people to place their own data description in the engine today, you see what was happening to the entire web not that long ago. ExactSeek comes to mind as a good example of a spammed out search engine.
The web was on the brink of becoming useless if it did not stop the spammers. Consequently the value of the meta keyword tag has dropped. Most major search engines say they do not even support the keywords tag anymore, They rely on the page content to pick up the slack for this area looking at page focus and consistency.
My Lack of Meta Tags
On Google I achieved a #5 listing for a competitive term in a competitive field on a page with zero PageRank and only a page title ( I had no meta tags on the page.) Meta tags mean very little in Google's algorithm; however, Yahoo! places more weighting on meta tags.
Overview of Meta Tags
Meta tags are somewhat important, but they are a piece of the pie. Page title and linkage data are the two most important elements in most major search algorithms. A well optimized site has great content, is easy to navigate, has specific content, has great focus, and in due time the combination of the above and incentives or providing a useful service will even help develop link popularity and better rankings.
Review of Page Title, Meta Tags, and Other Tags
Page Title Tag - Not a meta tag, but still goes in the same part of the page code. Displayed on search results and at the very top of the browser. Page title is usually the single most important text on the page.
Meta Description Tag - A sentence to a paragraph describing the page content. Is sometimes displayed in search results under the page title.
Meta Keywords Tags - Not displayed to viewer or in search results. Ignored by most search engines. Not super important. Yahoo! uses it to help include pages into search results when the text is not on the page. Misspellings and stuff like that should go in the meta keywords tag.
Comments Tags - Used to help break up programming. States what each part of a complex program does. No good for SEO purposes as they are ignored by most search engines.
Meta Refresh Tags - Used to redirect the browser to another page. When possible it is better to use a 301 redirect.
Robots Exclusion Tags - Used to prevent robots from spidering certain pages or your entire site.
Other Meta Tags - Meta tags not covered in the above short list.
IMG Alt Tags - Used to tell visually impaired people what an image represents. IMG Alt tags act similary to anchor text. Don't forget to use a period at the end of your IMG Alt tags.
Make Meta Tags - Our free web based meta tag generator.
Meta Tags & Meta Tag Tips Article Source :
http://www.search-marketing.info/meta-tags/index.htm