Why Properly Structured Meta Tags are Vital to the Success of your Website

A meta tag is information that appears in the “head” section of your webpage’s HTML source code. Meta tags are not seen by visitors; rather they are read by search engines and browsers and enable them to identify information on what a web page is about. There are commonly three important meta tags that search engines use to obtain information about your web page.

The description tag should contain a short description of the web page such as “Everything you need to know about blue widgets from history to price,” and a meta keywords tag that contains a list of keywords relevant to the page such as “blue widgets, blue widget collecting, blue widget history” and so on. There is also a title tag which is the most important of the three meta tags from both a visitor and search engine perspective.

A compelling description tag will increase the number of visitors to your site.

Using these tags properly is important for a number of reasons. Search engines use the information contained in the description tag to generate the descriptions that appear with in the search results. Having a compelling description as part of your search engine listing can be the difference between a potential customer clicking your link or not, which is why these tags are important. It is important to create an enticing description for your web page so that visitors will have a reason to choose your website over the competing websites listed in the search results.
Although most major search engines do not rely on the meta keywords tag like they did in the beginning of the internet revolution to determine page rank, some smaller and specialty search engines still do. The major search engines are however, far more likely to rank any niche keywords you wish to target, if they are contained in your meta keywords tag. It is still therefore worth the effort to ensure that this tag contains a list of relevant search terms. If you use the keywords in your web page keywords tag along with the same keywords in your web page content, you may also see a boost in your website’s ranking.

Boost your search engine rankings with a well crafted title tag.

By far the most important of all these meta tags is the title tag. This tag should not only contain information for search engines and browsers, but for visitors as well. The information contained in this meta tag is displayed at the top of the browser window for visitors to see. It is also used by the search engines as the first line of your listings description and normally appears in bold. It is therefore vitally important that this tag contains relevant information to provide your potential visitors with an idea of what each page is about and must also contain keyword information for search engines. Having a properly structured title tag is important because it adds a professional look to your website and will instill confidence in your visitors. Web pages that have empty title tags or contain a generic term such as “Home” or “Untitled” do not look as professional as ones that describe what a page is about, such as “Blue Widgets for Every Need.” Your title tag should be a short descriptive sentence that contains one or more keywords, while still being easy to read and understand.

It is important that a unique set of meta tags is created for each page of your website, containing targeted keywords that are relevant to the web page content of each specific page.

Robert Smith has over 5 years experience in online marketing and search engine optimisation. He is the owner of Get On Fast, a specialist online marketing agency, based in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

Visit our website today, for further information on Meta Tags or, to discover how search engines rate your website, request our FREE Web Site Analysis report today.