HTML Meta Tags That Help Your Web Site Ranking

**Anilrgowda** · 22-Dec-2006, 03:37 AM

The keyword in the title is Help. Good HTML meta tag are definitely better than no HTML meta tag at all, but they alone will not boost your ranking to the top. You must have quality content on your site and a good inbound links also in order to establish with search engine and directories. Having said that lets look at some basic HTML meta tags.
Please note that, all the HTML meta tags go between the <head> </head> section of the HTML source.

The <TITLE> HTML Meta Tag
Keep the title tag to 11-13 words that provide a "title" to the web page (not the title for whole site). The title tag is usually used by the search engines to display your site in the search results with the site link on it. This means that your title is competing with other titles in the search results and you might want to have an eye catching title. Please refrain from making the title all capital or capitalizing random letters. These habits are discouraged by the search engines, and your web page may be penalized for doing this. Also, most search engines are case insensitive, thus doing this will not help you in getting higher ranking.

The Title tag is perhaps the most important tag on the whole page. Most meta crawlers use the title tag in ranking web pages. Also the title is the first line a web user looks at in the search results. A bad title can harm your web traffic even if you are listed high on the search results, on the other hand a good title will increase the chances of your web page being clicked on in the search results.

Code:

The <DESCRIPTION> HTML Meta Tag

This is the description of your web page (once again not the description for the whole site). Search engines usually look at the first 10-14 words in the description, so it is important that you keep the description short at the same time delivering a clear message to the user.

The description tag is displayed under the title on the web page in the search results and is the second most important piece of communication between your web page and the user. Put yourself in the users' position and think of the kind of description that you would click on in the search results. It's a good idea to put words that you used on the rest of the web page in the description.

Code:

The <KEYWORDS> HTML Meta Tag

Select 10-15 keywords that you want your site to come up under, then arrange them in the order of relevance and put them in the keywords tag. The order of relevance is important because different search engines use different limit for picking the first "x" keywords from the list.

Do not use same words in the description and keywords HTML meta tag. Just like in the description it is a good idea to use words that are also scattered on the actual text of the web page. Doing this re enforces to the search engines that the web page is actually discussing what is described in the meta tags.

Sometimes it is a good idea to use commonly misspelled words in the keywords tag. For example: If your web page is about "Search Engine Optimization" you might want to use "searchengine" as one of your keywords many people might type "search engine" as one word while searching. If you decide to do this, then remember to use the word "searchengine" in the actual text of the page.

The <ROBOTS> HTML Meta Tag
This tags helps you specify if the web page has to be indexed or not. Yeah, believe it or not there are some pages that webmasters do not want to be indexed. If you want the search engine crawler to index your web page and then follow links on that page, then use the following robots tag:

codeDivStart()

Code:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">

If you do not want the crawler to index the web page you can put in the following meta tag:

codeDivStart()

Code:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX">

Not all search engines support this tag, but it is a good idea to include this meta tag for search engines that do support it, especially if you do not want the search engine to index a certain page.

Other Helpful Tips About HTML Meta Tag

Few quick tips that you might want to try are:

Naming the web page and the directory relevant to the text of the web page. For example if the name of this HTML page is metaTags.html I could also have named it html_meta_tag.html or htmlMetaTag.html. Some search engines also use the page name to get some idea about the page content (it might also help you to find this page in a directory with 50 pages).

Always think about the web page as a single unit when deciding the HTML meta tag and other information. Do not put information that is not present on that particular page in the HTML meta tag. Search engines think of the internet as a collection or single web pages, and they only are about web pages that are relevant to their users.

HTML meta tag alone will not lead to a high search engine rankings and fewer search engines actually use meta tag in their ranking process. You will need web page with relevant quality content, and considerable in bound links comming to your web page to make it rank high on search engines.

22-Dec-2006, 03:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	HTML Meta Tags That Help Your Web Site Ranking The keyword in the title is Help. Good HTML meta tag are definitely better than no HTML meta tag at all, but they alone will not boost your ranking to the top. You must have quality content on your site and a good inbound links also in order to establish with search engine and directories. Having said that lets look at some basic HTML meta tags. Please note that, all the HTML meta tags go between the <head> </head> section of the HTML source. The <TITLE> HTML Meta Tag Keep the title tag to 11-13 words that provide a "title" to the web page (not the title for whole site). The title tag is usually used by the search engines to display your site in the search results with the site link on it. This means that your title is competing with other titles in the search results and you might want to have an eye catching title. Please refrain from making the title all capital or capitalizing random letters. These habits are discouraged by the search engines, and your web page may be penalized for doing this. Also, most search engines are case insensitive, thus doing this will not help you in getting higher ranking. The Title tag is perhaps the most important tag on the whole page. Most meta crawlers use the title tag in ranking web pages. Also the title is the first line a web user looks at in the search results. A bad title can harm your web traffic even if you are listed high on the search results, on the other hand a good title will increase the chances of your web page being clicked on in the search results. Code: The <DESCRIPTION> HTML Meta Tag This is the description of your web page (once again not the description for the whole site). Search engines usually look at the first 10-14 words in the description, so it is important that you keep the description short at the same time delivering a clear message to the user. The description tag is displayed under the title on the web page in the search results and is the second most important piece of communication between your web page and the user. Put yourself in the users' position and think of the kind of description that you would click on in the search results. It's a good idea to put words that you used on the rest of the web page in the description. Code: The <KEYWORDS> HTML Meta Tag Select 10-15 keywords that you want your site to come up under, then arrange them in the order of relevance and put them in the keywords tag. The order of relevance is important because different search engines use different limit for picking the first "x" keywords from the list. Do not use same words in the description and keywords HTML meta tag. Just like in the description it is a good idea to use words that are also scattered on the actual text of the web page. Doing this re enforces to the search engines that the web page is actually discussing what is described in the meta tags. Sometimes it is a good idea to use commonly misspelled words in the keywords tag. For example: If your web page is about "Search Engine Optimization" you might want to use "searchengine" as one of your keywords many people might type "search engine" as one word while searching. If you decide to do this, then remember to use the word "searchengine" in the actual text of the page. The <ROBOTS> HTML Meta Tag This tags helps you specify if the web page has to be indexed or not. Yeah, believe it or not there are some pages that webmasters do not want to be indexed. If you want the search engine crawler to index your web page and then follow links on that page, then use the following robots tag: codeDivStart() Code: <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW"> If you do not want the crawler to index the web page you can put in the following meta tag: codeDivStart() Code: <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX"> Not all search engines support this tag, but it is a good idea to include this meta tag for search engines that do support it, especially if you do not want the search engine to index a certain page. Other Helpful Tips About HTML Meta Tag Few quick tips that you might want to try are: Naming the web page and the directory relevant to the text of the web page. For example if the name of this HTML page is metaTags.html I could also have named it html_meta_tag.html or htmlMetaTag.html. Some search engines also use the page name to get some idea about the page content (it might also help you to find this page in a directory with 50 pages). Always think about the web page as a single unit when deciding the HTML meta tag and other information. Do not put information that is not present on that particular page in the HTML meta tag. Search engines think of the internet as a collection or single web pages, and they only are about web pages that are relevant to their users. HTML meta tag alone will not lead to a high search engine rankings and fewer search engines actually use meta tag in their ranking process. You will need web page with relevant quality content, and considerable in bound links comming to your web page to make it rank high on search engines.

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