Meta Tag
What is Meta Tag
Meta tag provides metadata about Html page or web-page. In other words it gives some information about our Html page. Metadata is not displayed on web-page but when you search any keyword on search engine it will display.
The "meta" stands for "metadata," which is the kind of data these tags provide – data about the data on your page.
Why use meta tag
It is used for specify page description, keyword, author of page, last modify, index page by search engine or not.
Note: <meta> tag always live inside <head> tag
Note: Metadata always passed as name/value pairs.
Define keywords for search engines
<meta name="keywords" content="SEO is important for every websites">
Define a description of your web page
<meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials on HTML and CSS">
Define the author of a page
<meta name="author" content="Hitesh Pandit">
Refresh document every 30 seconds
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30">
Meta tag for stop Search engine crawlers to indexing a page
Stop Search engine crawlers
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
Point to Remember About Meta Tag
- <meta> tags always go inside the <head> element, and are typically used to specify character set, page description, keywords, author of the document, and viewport settings.
- Metadata will not be displayed on the page, but is machine parsable.
- Metadata is used by browsers (how to display content or reload page), search engines (keywords), and other web services.
- There is a method to let web designers take control over the viewport (the user's visible area of a web page), through the <meta> tag (See "Setting The Viewport" ).
Example of Meta Tag
Stop Search engine crawlers
<head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="description" content="Free Web tutorials"> <meta name="keywords" content="HTML, CSS, JavaScript"> <meta name="author" content="John Doe"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> </head>
Best Practices for Meta Tags
Below are certain practices to engage and to get the best out of your meta tags.
Use Keywords: Choose one or two main keywords and use them in your tags. Avoid using too many keywords, because it could not sound very natural. This is the first time the potential customers visit your website so be sure they will have a good first impression.
Keep it short: There is now a new 158-character limit provided by Google for meta tags description. It is limited to 120 characters for mobile phones. Still, better to use up to 60 characters, because Google displays only between 56 and 61 characters on desktop computers.
Ensure to use unique meta tags: Based on Google's recommendation you should use 100% unique title tags on your website.
Use modifiers: The use of modifiers gives you the advantage to create a product description using just a few words. Try to use the words: Top, Easy, Best, Buy, how to, Review, Find, etc.
Include branding: Make sure to include your company's name, logo, website URL when you write your tag, this will make the connection with your business.