Meta Tag Best Practice
Jan 11, 2010
What all website owners need to know about Meta Tags.
What are Meta tags? A "meta tag" is HTML code which is located in the "header" of your webpage. To view the metadata in your webpage, or any webpage, select "view source" in your browser by right clicking the background of the webpage.
Common meta tags are "Title", "Description" and "Keywords" and can help with search engine optimization. But be forewarned meta tags aren’t the "be all and end all" of search engine optimization. In fact they mean less and less but it’s still good practice to use them.
Here some basic rules to get the most out of your meta tags:
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Title Tag: Use 5-10 words to write a keyword-rich title that's relevant to the page. Begin with keywords, using sentence case. It's important because most engines use the copy as the link to your page in search results.
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Description Tag: Very important because it's often used by search engines as your site description in search results. Use 15-20 words, starting with several strategic keywords (170 characters). Make it compelling and relevant to receive qualified traffic.
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Meta Keywords Tag: List your strategic keyword phrases up to a maximum of 20 characters. Use keywords that are relevant to the page, with or without commas. (not as important as they once were since Google doesn’t use this anymore)
About the Author
Tony Tullio is the Director at Inorbital Inc. and constantly in search of practical web services and functional websites. Let us know of what you think about this topic. Connect with him via Twitter and LinkedIn.