Meta tags are hidden HTML tags used to describe various aspects about a Web page. META tags are hidden in a document's source they are inserted into the "head" area of your Web pages. The two most important meta tags are the meta description and meta keywords tags. Let's take a closer look at each meta tag.
Sample meta tags:
Meta description tags
The contents of meta description tags are indexed by some search engines as the page description in its search engine results and are shown just below the Title. Google is one of the search engines that shows the description included in your pages in its listings.
However, meta description tags is often misused, with misleading or even false descriptions about a page. As a result, the relevancy of search results are often compromised, so search engines have begun to give very less importance to this tag and some times even totally ignore the contents of the description tag.
Some search engines, such as AltaVista and Inktomi, still index the contents of a meta description tag for its search results. But if the meta description tag is missing, the search engine will usually extract a description from the body text.
In general, search engines will index the first 100-250 characters of the meta description tag contents. Write a description that sells the page remember to keep your description attractive because if you don't have an attractive description then no one will click through your site.
Include the most important keywords at the beginning of the tag. But, don't just fill the description tag with keywords because stuffing is not your solution just be descriptive and specific to your keywords.
Meta keywords tags
The contents of a meta keyword tag is used to help define the important keywords of a page. It sounds good in theory. However, in practice, the meta keywords tag is often misused, including the addition of excessive or irrelevant keywords. So much so, that most, but not all, search engines totally ignore the contents of the meta keywords tag.
Inktomi is the only search engine that I know of that indexes the meta keywords tag. Since Inktomi provides search results for top search engines such as MSN, HotBot, and Overture, I would say it's probably worth the effort to include the meta keywords tag in your Web pages, it 's not sure what benefit will your web page have using keywords tag but its sure that it will not hurt you so its better to be on the safer side.
If you do decide to use the meta keywords tag, I suggest that you only include the most important keyword phrase in the content of the tag. The meta keywords tag should be placed just after the meta description tag. I will advice you that you either use it well or not at all.
How big should the keywords section be? 800-1000 is what I will advice you.
A META keyword tag lists all the keywords for which you would like search engines to rank your site. Although not all search engines support this tag, you should use it for the ones that do.
Many experts advise against excessive repetition of any single keyword even if they appear in different phrases separated by commas. Once again the guidelines vary and are not precise but it would be better to be conservative at first.
The thing to remember about meta tags is that they are just one part of search engine optimization. If your text is keyword rich and your page structure allows the search engines to get to this text easily and if, on top of this, you have crafted your meta tags well, then you have an excellent chance of getting the search engine positioning results that you are aiming for.
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