The Fantastic SEO Meta Tags

Meta-tags represent the beginning of most SEO training, for better or for worse. I have considered exactly how to present this topic because we always hear the wrong side of the meta-tags, namely the keywords meta-tags. One of the first things dissected in any site review is the misuse of meta-tags, mainly because they are at the top of every page in the header and so are the first thing seen. But we do not want to be too negative; Meta-tags are some of the best tools in a researcher’s repertoire.

There are meta-tags beyond description and keywords, although these two are selected the most. I decomposed the most used (in my experience) by good, bad and indifferent. You will notice that the list is longer when we get to the wrong ones. I have not managed to cover all the meta tags can be added, but there is a complete meta-tags database that you should check out if you are interested in everything that is going on.

My main advice: respect the basic minimum. Do not add meta-tags that you do not need – they just take code space. The less code you have, the better. Think of the code on your page as a set of step-by-step instructions to access somewhere but for a browser. The endatable meta-tags are the annoying line items “Go straight for 200 feet” in directions that simply tell you to stay on the same road you’re already on!

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Good meta tags

These are the meta tags that should be on every page no matter what. Note that this is a small list; These are the only ones that are needed, so if you can work with these, do it.

• Type of meta-content – This tag is required to declare your character set for the page and should be present on each page. Leaving this can have an impact on how your page is done in the browser. Some options are listed below, but your designer needs to know what’s best for your site.

<Meta http-equiv = “content-type” content = “text / html; charset = utf-8” />

<Meta http-equiv = “Content-Type” content = “text / html; charset = ISO-8859-1”>

• Title – Although the title tag does not start with “meta”, it is in the header and contains very important information for SEO. You should always have a unique title label on each page that describes the page. See this publication for more information on title tags.
• Meta description: The infamous meta-description label is used for a major purpose: to describe the page to researchers when they read the SERPs. This tag has no influence on the ranking, but it’s very important, no matter. It is the copy of the ad that will determine if users click on your result. Keep it up to 160 characters and write it down to get the user’s attention. Sell ​​the page – click on the result. Here is an excellent article on meta-descriptions that details.
• Viewport – In this mobile world, you must specify the window. If you do not, you may have a bad mobile experience: the Google PageSpeed ​​Insights tool will let you know more. The standard label is:

<Meta name = viewport content = “width = device width, initial scale = 1”>

The indifferent meta-tags

Different sites will have to use these in specific circumstances, but if you can go without, do so.

• Meta social tags – I leave them. OpenGraph and Twitter data are important for sharing, but are not necessary in and of themselves.
• Robots – A huge misconception is that you must have a meta-tag of robots. Let’s do this clearly: in terms of indexing and tracking links, if you do not specify a meta-robot label, they read that as an index, to follow. It is only if you want to modify one of these two commands that you need to add meta-robots. Therefore, if you want to ignore, but follow the links on the page, you would add the following tag with only the noindex, because tracking is implied. Change only what you want to be different from the norm.
• <Meta name = “robots” content = “noindex” />
• Specific bots (Googlebot) – These tags are used to give specific bot instructions such as noodp (require them not to use your DMOZ, RIP list information) and to embed (even, but Yahoo Directory list information) . Generally, search engines are very good for this stuff, but if you think you need it, do not hesitate. There have been a few cases where I’ve seen where it’s needed, but if you’d like, consider using the global robot tag shown above.
• Language – The only reason for using this tag is if you are moving internationally and must declare the main language used on the page. Check out this meta-language resource for a complete list of languages ​​you can declare.
• Geo – The last I heard, these meta tags are supported by Bing, but not by Google (you can target to a country in Search Console). There are three kinds: placename, position (latitude and longitude) and region.<META NAME = “geo.position” CONTENT = “latitude; longitude”>

  <META NAME = “geo.placename” CONTENT = “Place Name”>

  <META NAME = “geo.region” CONTENT = “Country Subdivision Code”>

• Keywords – Yes, I put it on the “indifferent” list. Although no good SEO recommends spending any time on this label, there are very small possibilities, this might help you somewhere. Please, leave it out if you are building a site, but if it is automated, there is no reason to remove it.
• Refresh – This is the redirection of the poor and should not be used, if possible. You should always use a server-side 301 redirection. I know that sometimes things have to happen now, but Google is NOT a fan.
• Site verification – Your site is checked with Google and Bing, is not it? Who has the meta-tags checking on their homepage? These are sometimes necessary because you can not load other forms of site verification, but if possible, try to check in another way. Google allows you to check by DNS, external file or by linking your Google Analytics account. Bingstill only allows XML file or meta-tag, so go with the file if you can.
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  The bad meta tags

  Nothing wrong will happen to your site if you use these – let me clarify that. However, they are a loss of space; Even Google said it (and it was 12 years ago now!). If you are ready and ready, it might be time for a spring cleaning of your <head> area.

  • Author / web author – This tag is used to name the author of the page. This is not necessary on the page.
  • Review after: This meta tag is a command for robots to return to a page after a specific period of time. It is not followed by a major search engine.
  • Evaluation – This tag is used to describe the maturity of the content. I wrote a publication on how to mark a page with adult images using a very confusing system that has been updated (see the comments of the publication). It seems that the best way to rate the wrong images is to place them on a separate directory from other images on your site and to alert Google.
  • Expiration / Date – “Expiration” is used to note when the page expires, and “date” is the date of the page. Will your pages expire? Simply delete them if they are (but do not respect the content, even the contests – make it an annual contest instead!). And for “date”, create and maintain an XML sitemap. It is much more useful.
  • Copyright: This Google article discusses with me a little, but look at the footer of your site. I guess that says “Copyright 20xx” in some form. Why say it twice?

  Summary – This label is sometimes used to place a summary of the content and used primarily by educational activities.

  Distribution – The “distribution” value is supposedly used to control who can access the document, usually set to “global”. It is implicitly implied that if the page is open (not protected by password, as on an intranet), it is destined for the world. Go with it and leave the tag off the page.

  Builder – This makes it possible to note which program created the page. As “author”, it is useless.

  Cache Control – This tag is configured in the hope of controlling when and how often a page is cached in the browser. It is best to do this in the HTTP header.

  Resource Type: This is used to name the resource type that the page contains, such as “document”. Save time because the DTD statement does it for you.

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