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Meta Tags
by Alexander O. (www.webskyguide.com)
What are Meta tags for?
A Meta tag is a particular HTML-tag that is meant for setting source data in the page code. Some people make the mistake of thinking that Meta tags are not important
enough to use. Still others claim that Meta tags are of primary importance. This discussion will look at the value of Meta Tags for web site owners.
Initially, Meta tags were used extensively by search engines, and consequently, they were essential for successful promotion of the site on the Internet. Correctly
filled Meta tags clearly characterized the site, its trends, and its subject.
However, due to the activities of spammers, the situation has changed dramatically. Site owners began filling key searching positions with popular queries, that had
no connection with the site. This created a situation where, for example, a site offering web-design services could appear at the top of the list generated by
searching robot for the query "flat for rent." As a result, the searchers had to decrease the values of description tags in order to preserve the relevance and
accuracy of the search results.
Meta Tags and Searching Browsers
DESCRIPTION, KEYWORDS and TITLE tags provide important information for search browsers rankings.
DESCRIPTION. This tag consists of the address of the document, its name, rating (document-query ratio) and its "literary" description. If there is no
description, this role is played by the beginning of the document, which can seem irrelevant for the searching browser. Therefore, to make a site more effective,
it is necessary to pay special attention to the DESCRIPTION tag.
KEYWORDS. This Meta tag consists of a number of phrases and words that are divided by commas and that characterize a document. They are essential for the search engine,
which compares the content of this tag with the user's query.
TITLE. The Title tag is represented in the page title.
Searching browsers are regularly updated, in order to differentiate between the spammers' resources and the pages of lawful site owners. Therefore, Meta tags preserve
their importance as a means for correct positioning of the Internet resource.
What should one know to use Meta tags correctly?
Tips
Economical Use. Keywords should not be used more than 3 times. If repeated more often (five times or more), the page will likely be associated with spamming and, as a
result, Meta tags will produce negative consequences.
Correspondence with the content. When evaluating the site for spam, a searching robot compares the content of the Meta tags with the text. If there is no
correspondence, the robot will regard the site as suspicious, and the site rating will decrease. Sites with little text will have lower ratings that those with pages
of rich text content.
Laconism. While providing DESCRIPTION, be laconic (brief and to the point). Most of searching browsers provide the user with DESCRIPTION searching results showing not
more than 170 symbols. What should you do if the page description requires more details? Divide it into several small pages or sub-sections and provide personal and
shorter description for each of these pages or sections. If you write Meta tag description for both the main page of the site and all other pages (each with unique
keywords), you will have created the opportunity to provide searching browsers with a particular page for the user's query. As a result, the user does not spend time
browsing the site, and the resource becomes more effective.
Accuracy. In general, it is better to choose specific words for descriptions and keywords rather than general sentences. If, for example, you operate your business in
a particular region, mention it - unless your business is global in nature, you do not want clients from other countries.
Characteristics of searching engines. Different searching browsers value the importance of different tags differently. For example, AltaVista, InfoSeek and Excite
prefer the DESCRIPTION tag. Some of the searching browsers differentiate page titles and ignore Meta tags. But there is minority of those.
Searching queries of the users. Remember that searching robots are not people, and may have difficulty recognizing that "Sport" and "sport" are one word. Other robots
have no idea that, for example, the user searching for information about "Barcilona" wanted to find out about the Spanish city, Barcelona. Therefore it is useful to
add keywords with "popular" mistakes, and write keywords with low case letters since statistically, most people use lower case.
Placing. Tags should be place as high as possible in the code, and, in any case, above the scripts in order to utilize the special characteristics of searching
robots.
Arranging. Avoid using periods and commas. Firstly, they use space that can be filled with content. Secondly, a searching browser can interpret several words in a
line as a query phrase. This will enable your site to be placed higher in the relevance rating.
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