Meta Tags

The first step in optimizing your webpage.

This outline is not all-inclusive, but provides a overview of Meta Tags and their importance to html optimization and search engine indexing.

This Meta-information is actually retrieved before the webpage loads in the browzer. It gives directories and search engines a method to categorize and and locate your webpage. All Meta Tags, including keyword tags, description tags and title tags are placed in the <head> tag. Not all search engines give this the highest priority, but they must be included to index well on certain search engines.

Keyword Tags - Provides a list of words that a search engine spider uses to index your website. They will count the keywords references in the content body of the webpage and produce an index value. The value is used to match with a search term to produce relevant results. The keywords should be words or phrases that searchers actually use otherwise you will be successful with the keyword positioning, but no one will see your webpage. Keyword tags should be determined first, since all other tags refer to the selected keywords.

Title Tags- There are two title tags. Meta Title tags gives the search engine a title to your webpage. While all Meta Tags are important, this tag can have the most impact on html optimization for certain search engines. Some search engines index solely on this tag. Place your most important keyword first in the Title Tag so it will be the first word indexed. Include 3-4 other keywords within the title while making sure that it is readable. Title tags should contain appx. 75 characters.

The other Title Tag simply places a title for your webpage in the Title Bar of the brower. This title may also add to the importance of your selected keywords and also goes in the same area as the Meta information.

<title>Your wepage title goes here</title>

Description Tags - Provides a description for web directory and search engine listings. By creatively placing 3-4 references to your main keywords in description tags, you can improve your chances at a high ranking. Description tags will be presented under the title in a search results listings.

Abstract Tags - Similar in function to a description tag. Abstract tags are meant for a shorter description of the website, but for html optimization it is just another opportunity to load keywords for spiders to count keyword references. Abstract tags should be brief, around 10-12 words

Robots Tags - This tag tells a search engine spider to index the page, but do not follow the links included on the page. This will allow some control over limiting the spider's path. Variations include "no index, no follow."

Meta tags are a very important factor in successful html optimization to some search engines. They should be included in every optimized webpage. There are several more Meta tags including an author, refresh, copyright and revisit tags.