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What are meta tags?
In the world of web development, there are numerous tags a site's creator can use to enhance visibility, accessibility, and the overall user experience of a website. Meta tags come in a lot of different flavors. They can be used as a source of information summarization or as directives for browsers to follow when rendering a webpage.
One of the most crucial yet often overlooked components of webdevelopment that beginners tend to ignore is the role meta tags play. Not only are meta tags important, they are also used by search engines to determine how well your content should rank. Which means that ignoring them, or even worse, using them incorrectly, could lead to a loss of potential traffic.
In this short article, we will delve into what meta tags are, their types, importance, and how they impact your website's performance.
Meta tags are HTML elements that are placed within the <head> section of a web page. They do not appear on the page itself hen it is rendered to the user. Instead, they provide metadata (hence the name meta) about the document, such as its title, description, keywords, author, and more. [1]
The title tag is one of the most important meta tags. It defines the title of the page, which appears in the browser's title bar and in search engine results pages. Both search engines as well as real users look for the titles as an indication of what the page is all about. Failing to add a title tag can have serious consequences for your website's visibility on search engines.
<title>Example Page Title</title>
The meta description tag provides a brief summary of the page's content. This is often displayed in search engine results along with the title. It also helps search engines, just like the title tag, with identifying what the page is focused on. Simply put it's a summary of the page's content. See this example.
<meta name="description" content="A brief summary of the page's content">
Although less relevant today due to past abuses, the keywords tag was once used to list keywords related to the content of the page. However, most search engines no longer use this tag for ranking purposes. It still has its limited uses but is not of primary importance like the previously mentioned tags.
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">
When search engines visit your page to crawl it (add it to their index), the robots meta tag instructs search engine crawlers as to how they should operate on the specific page. Common directives that can be provided include index, noindex, follow, and nofollow [2]
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
This meta tag is crucial for mobile-friendly websites as it controls the zooming and scaling of web pages on different devices. Forgetting to set this directly can have severe consequences for your mobile website layout.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
There are other meta tags than mentioned below. But as you can see, in general they can be split into various categories. Some are informational and describe the page's content, while others are instructive and tell browsers, crawlers, and other agents how they should behave once they enter your site.
Meta tags play a significant role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The title and meta description tags, for instance, can improve the click-through rate from Google and other engines. They work by providing a clear and compelling summary of the page's content if used properly. Misuses of these tags, such as stuffing them with the same word over and over in order to try to trick search engines, can severely impact search engine rankings. It is therefore recommended that you pay attention to these tags and fill them with relevant and human-friendly content.
The viewport meta tag, along with a few other tags, can significantly change how your site renders and operates. It's important to have your users' experience in mind as forgetting to set proper tags can lead to undesired interactions, scaling/zoom issues, and in the worst case, a non-functioning page.
Proper use of meta tags can also improve accessibility. For example, the robots tag can help screen readers and other assistive technologies navigate the site more effectively. There are a lot of people out there that rely on these assets to navigate the web and when possible, your website should serve this audience to the best of your ability. [3]
Unique Titles and Descriptions: Ensure each page has a unique title and meta description to avoid duplication and improve SEO. [4]
Relevant Keywords: Although the keywords tag is less important (as we discussed earlier), using relevant keywords in your title and meta description can still be beneficial. There is no har, in adding it if used properly.
Mobile Optimization: Always include the viewport meta tag to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.
Regular Updates: Periodically review and update your meta tags to reflect changes in your content or SEO strategies.
Meta tags are fundamental components of web development that offer numerous benefits ranging from improved SEO to enhanced user experience. By understanding the different types of meta tags and following best practices, you can optimize your website for better visibility, accessibility, and overall performance.
We hope that this short article was of help to you. If you still have more questions, see some of the other answers we've provided to similar questions.
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