Meta Tags Introduction - Emarketing 4 Success

Meta Tags - Introduction

Contrary to what some people believe, creating meta tags isn't really all that complicated. Unless, of course, you don't have a clue what they are or where to begin. So rather than assume you fully understand the process, let's start from square one.

Meta tags are placed between the opening and closing head tags (<head> </head>) within the HTML coding of a web page. Although there are numerous meta tags you can use, the three most prominent (and important) ones are the title, description, and keywords.

For example:

<head>

<title>Create and Publish Ebooks with eBookHelper</title>

<meta name="description" content="Create and publish your own ebooks - learn how with E-Books 4 Success, includes 1 FREE professionally designed 3D cover and FREE html tutorials">

<meta name="keywords" content="create ebooks, publish ebooks, write ebooks">

</head>

Now. Before we talk about each of these, notice that there are opening and closing tags for the title, but not the meta description and meta keywords. Basically, they are self-contained and don't require a closing tag.

Of course, if you want to get technical, the title isn't really a meta tag at all, but it's generally included in the overall meta tag category nevertheless.

Also, the title is the only one that is "visible" to humans. Unlike other tags (which only appear within a page's source code), the title appears in the upper left-hand corner of the browser window. It's there to see whenever a web page is loaded.

So why even bother with "invisible" tags? The goal is to communicate with search engine spiders, letting them know what your web page (or website) is all about.

Once upon a time, the meta description and meta keywords played a major role in how search engines evaluated, categorized, and "ranked" web pages. Currently, most of the weight falls on categorization.

And although some search engines do still place a certain amount of value on whatever is contained in the meta description and meta keywords, it won't equal the level of importance carried by other seo (search engine optimization) methods.

That being said, it's never a good idea to NOT include description and keywords meta tags. If nothing else, it will make YOU think about your primary objective for each page of your website.

For example...

What type of information are you supplying?
What type of visitors are you hoping to attract?
What type of message do you want to convey?

By isolating specific keywords that directly relate to your page content, visitor expectation, and message, you can then cater to what the search engines are looking for (we'll get into all that further on).

Plus, by including those specific keywords in your keywords meta tag, you'll be letting the search engine spiders know exactly what any given page on your website is all about.

Same goes for the meta description. The only difference is, whatever is contained in your description could find it's way into search engine results. And that would give you the opportunity to communicate directly with prospective visitors as well.

So regardless of how much search engines currently do or do not value description and keywords meta tags, it's still important to include them in the HTML code of your website pages.