The Meta tags embedded in the HTLM source code of a website
are what optimize the site for search engines. When a web designer uses the
Meta tags in a judicious manner the website created will be search engine
optimized (SEO) right from the start. Meta tags usually appear in the
header-section of the HTML source code of a website. Here are some useful tips
that web developers should know about Meta tags.
1: Title tag
When a web user inputs a search, the search engine looks for
a match in the title tag of the code. When there is an exact match the site is
found, indexed and displayed at the top of the results page. So incorporating
the most appropriate keywords in the title tag is an essential part of web
development.
When the keywords are a phrase, the order in which the words
appear is equally important from SEO's point of view. Search engines read
characters from left to right, so the order of words will decide whether the
match is accurate or not.
These are some things that a web developer must avoid while
incorporating keywords in the title tag and homepage:
- Using keywords in the title but not using them in the content
- Overcrowding the title with keywords
- Using keywords that are not relevant to the products/services the website offers
- Repeating the same title tag for all the pages of a site
- Using a title tag with more than 65 characters, rendering it meaningless for search engines
2: Description tag
A description tag, by definition, should tell the web users
and search engines something about the products the website is offering. Again,
relevancy of the keywords cannot be ignored but over-abundance of keywords will
be treated as spam by search engines. The description should ideally have about
150 to 200 characters for proper optimization. The description will appear
along with the link to the website and must be worded to generate curiosity,
thus compelling the reader to click on the link.
3: Content tag
Here, along with the density of keywords, the placement of
keywords in the content becomes equally crucial from the point of view of
Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When designing the website, the designer must
place the keywords in:
- The first line of the homepage
- The last line of the body of the homepage
- Just once more somewhere in the middle
Too many keywords or too many occurrences of the same
keywords will be treated as spam by search engines. As a developer you need to
take this issue very seriously when designing a website.
4: Meta robots tag
The Meta robots tag controls whether search engines will
find the website you have developed at all. It also controls which pages of the
website are indexed and displayed. Depending on the relevancy of the keywords,
there are four possible search engine results that can take place during a web
search:
- Index Follow - The search engine robots will locate the main page or index page of the website first, before the other pages.
- Index NoFollow - The robots will locate the index page but not the inner pages.
- NoIndex Follow - The search engine will overlook the main page will locate the other pages of a site.
- NoIndex NoFollow - A search engine will not find the website at all.
With proper planning and designing, a website created will
be located, indexed and displayed quickly by search engines. Correct usage of
Meta tags makes a website search engine friendly.
George Webber writes about Business, Entertainment, SEO and
Blogging tips. He is writing for 1800cabletv.com - your gateway to the best
cable companies across the nation. click here
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