Let's agree to have disagreements.
Robert Louis Stevenson.
This is a lesson in which we will talk about what meta tags are, why and how they are used and how to fill them out correctly.
As I already said in, meta tags are located in the header of the html page, between the and tags, and are not displayed in any way by the browser (except for the contents of the “title” tag). However, meta tags for a website play a very important role. Adding and optimizing them can significantly help the site in its life.
I recommend using only those meta tags that are actually needed for the site to function. Do not clutter the “head” area with unnecessary instructions, because... any mistake here can lead to dire consequences. If you know what you are doing, then meta tags will only be beneficial, but if you dump everything here, you can get problems that are difficult to diagnose.
With the same meta tag displayed in the window title:
In HTML, the title meta tag is added as follows:
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
In addition, as I said earlier, the keywords that you add to the “title” meta tag will be received extremely positively by search engines. So, when filling out this tag, try to include the right keywords. By the way, we will talk about them further.
§ 2. Meta tag “keywords” (keywords)First, let’s briefly talk about what these “key words” actually are.
Those words that most fully characterize the content of an html page and will be key words for it. These can be either individual words or phrases, but they must appear in the text on the page. Using them, search engines determine the relevance of a page to a particular request.
For example, for this page the keywords will be “meta tags”, “meta title tag”, “meta keywords tag”, etc.
We will talk in more detail about keywords, in particular, and website optimization, in general, in.
To make it easier for search engines, the “keywords” meta tag is used. In it, the webmaster writes keywords for the page. The HTML code for the "keywords" meta tag looks like this:
List of keywords">
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
Key words must be added one at a time, separated by commas, in the singular. For example, not “key words”, but “key word”. In addition, the irresponsible behavior of webmasters, who, in order to obtain higher positions in search engines, stuffed the “keywords” meta tag not only with keywords, but also with numerous derivatives from them, led to the fact that search engines practically stopped paying attention to this tag . Currently, a correctly filled “keywords” meta tag is used by search engines only as one of many ranking factors (by no means the main one). If they see “keywords” in front of them, into which all possible variations of keywords have been stuffed, then this becomes the first signal for them that this page is unreliable.
§ 3. Meta tag “description” (page description)The next important meta tag is the “description” tag, which should contain a brief description of the page. Precisely “short” and precisely “page description”. It is enough to add one or two small sentences in which you indicate what this page is about and for whom.
An important feature of the “description” meta tag is the fact that if it is filled out correctly, search engines use it to form a page snippet in the results (a short description under the link to the page):
If search engines don’t like the way the “description” meta tag is filled out, then the snippet is formed from pieces of phrases (pulled from the entire page) that are relevant to the query.
Thus, the correct “description” meta tag must contain a keyword (phrase) and briefly and accurately describe what the page is about and for whom. “Description” together with “title” form a pair of very important meta tags, which determine whether the user will move from the search results to the site or not! Therefore, it, like “title”, must be written for each page!
H The TML code to create the "description" meta tag would be as follows:
Contents of the “description” meta tag">
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
Now let’s move on to the description of the main technical meta tags from the “HTTP-EQUIV” group (HTTP equivalents).
§ 4. Technical meta tagsTechnical meta tags mean a lot for a website. With their help, you can control page display, indexing settings, etc. In this tutorial we will look at the basic technical meta tags.
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
And, in order to go to the page at http://www.site/ after 5 seconds, you need to write this:
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
Code to insert the meta tag “robots”:
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
author and copyright are meta tags that allow you to indicate the authorship and owner of the content on the page. HTML embed code:
Contents of the “title” meta tag
Main page content
These are all the meta tags in HTML that a beginner will need. The rest are specific and you may need them after you gain experience and know exactly what you are doing. Of all the above, I strongly recommend using the following on every page of your site:
Page title
Use steel ones as needed, but don’t bother too much. Remember that meta tags will not make your site interesting; they can only help the browser and web server to correctly display site pages, and the search engine to find them.
This section of my site is finally finished and then we will talk about where to start promoting and promoting your site on the Internet. There are also a couple of my tips from personal experience on optimizing website pages. Click on “Next”.
This article will be especially interesting to novice webmasters. They must not only be able to design website pages and fill them with materials, but also write the necessary meta tags. Similar tags are also used by developers when promoting video clips on YouTube and other interested parties.
General conceptFrom a huge number you can choose the main meta tags: Title, Description, Keywords. The first contains the title, the second - the description of the page, and the third - the main keywords for which the site is promoted. From the above list, it becomes clear that the Keywords meta tag is, in fact, user requests. It combines all the most essential key phrases.
Role in website promotion and search engine optimizationTo understand its significance, you need to remember the distant 90s, when there was only one main factor for ranking web resources for all search robots. It was not yet possible to implement the amazing idea of Larry Page (one of several founders of Google Corporation) to use Page rank to identify Internet pages that match the query entered by the reader in the search field.
Accordingly, the system simply analyzed the article for the presence of phrases specified by the user. control was exercised over the density of keys in the text. The contents of the tags were considered with great passion, with particular attention paid to such a page element as the Keywords tag.
Special tags (meta), which were invented by Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, in 1989, allowed the author to provide information about the content, title and keywords of an article to the search engine. Moreover, Title did not become a meta tag, unlike Description and Keywords. They were registered in a special Head container, which did not display the information specified in it in the site blocks. The Keywords meta tag was originally intended to ease the hard work of search engines in identifying web pages that match a user's query. Nowadays everything has changed.
Disappointing Consequences: The Keywords Meta Tag Has No Effect on RankingWhat was supposed to be beneficial began to turn into harm. The existing harmony was soon destroyed by the sudden competition for top results (traffic came only from the first search page for any queries). The benefit of the site owner began to directly depend on the presence of the resource in the top.
Unscrupulous website developers began to spam keywords in the field in which the Keywords tag should be indicated. Search engines could not focus on such an easily cheatable parameter. have completely lost their meaning. It is worth taking into account that search engines have long ago solved the existing problem. The company's developers answered questions from webmasters in interviews.
Google announced in 2001 that it would not take into account words written in this meta tag when ranking sites. The Yandex company did not give such a clear answer to the events taking place, emphasizing that the keys can be taken into account by the robot. Experts conducted an experiment. A non-existent word was included in the page tag. Only the Yahoo search engine could find it. From this we can conclude that other companies have already decided on their attitude towards the tag. We can hope that someday the search engines will reconsider their decision, but they are not going to change their policy for the next ten years.
We can summarize. Should I include a Keywords meta tag? What will this give when promoting the project? Definitely, he stopped influencing the promotion in any way. The belief that filling out all information fields about a page is the key to successful promotion has long lost its meaning. Moreover, if the keywords are selected incorrectly, the Keywords tag can cause the owner’s site to fall under the filter. Search engines still punish careless developers for spam. Therefore, you should indicate only those phrases that appear most frequently in the text.
Actually, if a developer creates a website on a modern engine (CMS), then he is not required to go into details and understand it. Simply enter the required data in the fields provided, and the system itself will insert it in the right place.
If a webmaster creates a statistical resource in HTML or acquires initial knowledge about sites, then he needs to know the syntax of the Keywords tag.
The exact number of characters enclosed in this meta tag is of no small importance. Most sources indicate a different number of letters, while emphasizing that the main thing is to choose the right keywords, and then this problem will become of secondary importance. However, the experience of the developers proves that not everything is as simple as we would like. Maintaining the exact occurrence of search queries in articles on the page and their specific sequence requires a considerable investment of time.
When counting the number of characters, search engines take into account spaces included in tags. Letters can be counted using the regular Microsoft Word program (data is indicated in statistics) or convenient online services. The search results will include the most famous services. Still, it’s worth returning to the topic. Next you can see the basis of the tag.
It looks like this:
Example:
Under no circumstances should you enter keys simply separated by a space! Each word must be separated by a comma. The meta tag consists of only 200 characters. You can specify both ordinary words and phrases. They should also appear on the page. Repetitions of words are acceptable, but do not get carried away with them; 2 identical nouns are enough. If the topic is too large, then it is better to split the information into several articles. The resulting texts should be placed on different web pages. Then the master will have the opportunity to select many more keywords for each individual part of the article. At the same time, he will be able to achieve maximum coverage of the topic by search queries.
What else can a properly designed Keywords meta tag serve? It helps you understand the site. For example, if a developer buys links that are offered by the eternal link exchanges GoGetLinks and GetGoodLinks, then he may not spend time creating a specific anchor (link text) for the URL. When the meta tag is filled in, the wizard simply copies the text from there, avoiding the tedious work of recording new information.
There are several tricks that experienced craftsmen use. You should not include more than 7 words or phrases in a tag. Quality has always trumped quantity. It is better to use phrases rather than simple common words. If you specify low-frequency keywords, you can also move up in search results using them. The more specific the request, the greater the likelihood that the site will be visited by the target audience. You should not use conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, or particles in this tag. Perhaps the phrase will become clearer to the user, but it should be taken into account that he still will not see the fruit of such efforts. Therefore, when writing key queries, it is better to focus not on readers, but on search engines.
Setting up Meta tags and keywordsGreetings, friends! This article will talk about how to write meta tags. Tags are an inseparable part of website optimization and promotion. And they need to be given no less attention than other optimization points. Correct writing of tags will help you promote your site and make money on it. The most important thing when writing meta tags is not to rush, but to compose it thoughtfully and competently from an optimization point of view. True, it may take quite a bit of time, but it is worth it. And you will soon reap the excellent fruits of your labor. I want to note that all meta tags should be located between these two main tags: your meta tags are located here.
Description of some meta tags in MOdx:
Abstract- The Abstract meta tag is very similar to the description meta tag, only it is an excerpt or summary of the description meta tag. Typically, the Abstract meta tag is one sentence that gives an overview of the web page. Although search engines don't use this tag often, it is a useful addition for search engines that read the first few lines of text on your web pages.
Author, CopyrightThese tags are not reflected by browsers, but are processed by some search engines. Typically, there is no need to use these tags at the same time. In most cases, one information tag is sufficient to identify the author or ownership of the document.
The Author tag should contain the name of the author; if the site belongs to an organization, it makes sense to use the Copyright tag. Information must be enclosed in quotation marks, for example.
Additionally, information tags may contain a "Lang" attribute indicating the language in which the property value is written.
Example: .
Description meta tag - serves for a brief description of the page.
It is used by search engines for indexing and as a short annotation when linking in a query response. And it is by the content of this tag that the search engine user will evaluate whether your site meets his expectations or not.
If the Description tag is missing, then search engines use the first line of text or an excerpt from the text with the found keyword as a description.
It is advisable that the length of the description does not exceed 80 characters.
Example:
The Generator meta tag is just one of a "glorious" family of tags widely used by HTML code generators for their own purposes. As a rule, these tags do not carry any useful load for the site owner.
KeywordsThe Keywords meta tag is used by search engines to assess relevance.
The words contained in the Keywords tag are considered by search engines as a recommendation, but sometimes this drop is not enough to tip the scales.
When generating a list of keywords for the Keywords meta tag, you must use the words contained in the text of the document. Words not contained in the text can be used in very small quantities, two to three words. They must be inserted at the end of the list.
Keywords should not be repeated in the Keywords tag, at most, no more than two times.
It makes sense to use no more than 10 words in the Keywords meta tag; more will not increase relevance.
In most cases, search engines find keywords that are in the plural (cats), even if the search is specified in the singular (cat). Therefore, it is recommended to include English plural nouns in the Keywords tag.
Some search engine robots do not move to a new line when parsing the Keywords meta tag, so it is not recommended to split it into several lines.
Example:
If the document is written in several languages, you can use the additional lang attribute to select the encoding (see the description of the Content-Language meta tag).
Example:
But it is more preferable to make separate pages, each in its own language with transitions from one to another, using tags And .
Resource-typeMeta tag Resource-type - describes the state of this document. If its value is other than “Document”, then search engines will not index it.
Designed for use in large projects, with many documents of different types.
Some possible values:
Example:
RevisitMeta tag Revisit - tells the search robot how many days later it needs to return and re-index this document.
Example (come once a week):
Meta tag Robots - contains instructions for search engine robots that collect information about HTML documents on the Internet.
The value of the Robots property can consist of the following directives, separated by commas:
The tag does not change anything in the work of the search engine robot, since the value "all" is accepted by default.
But if this page is created dynamically or is updated very often, then there is no point in indexing it, since the information about the page in the search engine and its true content will be different. In this case, you can recommend that the search engine not index this page, but only track hyperlinks on it in order to index the rest of the site.
When using a tag that prohibits tracking hyperlinks, part of the site may remain unindexed, since robots follow hyperlinks within the site. And those pages to which navigation is blocked will not be indexed.
The Robots meta tag takes precedence over control directives specified in the robots.txt file.
The Subject meta tag is used by search engines to determine the subject of a document. But until search engines agree on classification tables, the use of this tag is not always justified.
URLMeta URL tag - serves to exclude generated pages and mirrors from indexing. Having encountered this tag, the search engine robot must stop indexing the current document and follow the specified link.
Example:
The Content-Language meta tag is an indication of the document language. Used by search engines for indexing. Although most of them can distinguish the language from the text.
Some possible values (standard , ):
Example:
The HTML 4.0 specification has an alternative option for explicitly specifying the language -
Meta tag Content-Script-Type - Definition of the scripting programming language.
Some of the possible values:
Example:
If the Content-Script-Type tag is not used, then a scripting language type other than the default must be specified directly in each tag, example.
You can use multiple scripting languages in a single document. Specifying a language in a tag has higher priority within the current tag.
Meta tag Content-Style-Type - indicates the language of the style sheet, the value "text/css" is accepted by default, if it suits you and you do not use and tags in this document, then it is not necessary to use this tag.
Example:
Browsers determine the language of style sheets using the following algorithm:
Meta tag Content-Type - Responsible for indicating the document type and character encoding.
You should use the Content-Type meta tag only taking into account some nuances.
First, the character encoding of the text must match the encoding specified in the tag.
Secondly, the server should not change the text encoding when processing a browser request.
Third, if the server changes the text encoding, it must adjust or remove the Content-Type meta tag.
Failure to comply with these requirements can lead to the following: the web server will automatically detect the encoding of the client request and return the page to the web browser recoded. The browser, in turn, will read the document in accordance with the Content-Type meta tag. And if the encodings do not match, then it will be possible to read the document only after a series of intricate manipulations. This is especially true for older browsers IE 3.x - 4.x and Netscape 4.x.
Attention! The Content-Type meta tag is very often inserted by HTML code generators.
Some of the possible encoding types (standard):
Example:
ExpiresMeta tags Expires - controls caching. If the date specified in the tag has passed, the browser should make a second network request rather than using a copy from the cache. If you initially specify a past date, the document will not be cached.
Some search robots may refuse to index a document with an outdated date.
The date must be indicated in the standard.
Example:
The meta tag PICS-Label - (Platform-Independent Content rating Scheme Label)) determines the level of accessibility of the site (sex, violence), but can also be used for other purposes.
PragmaPragma - Caching control. If the value is “no-cache”, caching of this data is not recommended. Intended for documents obtained as a result of the script.
Example:
RefreshMeta tag Refresh - defines a time delay in seconds after which the browser automatically refreshes the document. An additional feature is automatic loading of another document.
Example:
If you just need to update the document, you don't need to specify the URL.
Set-CookieSet-Cookie - Setting up browser cookies.
Example:
The EXPIRES, DOMAIN, PATH and SECURE attributes can be omitted if necessary.
Example:
| NAME |
The cookie name cannot contain newlines, spaces, semicolons (;), or tabs. |
|
| EXPIRES |
Cookie storage time. After the specified date (in the format "Wdy, DD-Mon-YYYY HH:MM:SS GMT") the cookie expires. |
|
| DOMAIN |
The domain for which the cookie value is set. For domains COM, EDU, NET, ORG, GOV, MIL, INT, the value can be specified in the abbreviated form "MY.COM", it will also apply to the domain "WWW.MY.COM". For all others (including RU), the value must be specified in full "WWW.MY.RU". |
|
| PATH |
Sets the subset of documents that are affected by the cookie. If the value is "/doc", the cookie will be applied to all files and directories in this directory starting with "doc" (/doc/, /document/, /doc2/, docs.html, doc-test.htm). |
|
| SECURE |
Specifies that cookie information should be sent over HTTPS (HTTP over SSL). Otherwise, the cookie information will be sent over HTTP. |
Before making a request to the server, the browser checks the cookie. And if the NAME, DOMAIN and PATH attributes match, the browser sends a cookie to the server.
If the cookie accepts a new value, the old value is removed.
The browser has a number of restrictions on working with cookies:
These restrictions may vary slightly depending on your browser settings and type.
If the limit (general or domain) is exceeded, the first entry in time is deleted. Deletion occurs regardless of the value of the EXPIRES attribute.
If it exceeds 4 KB, the cookie is truncated.
Example:
Window-targetMeta tag Window-target - defines the window of the current page. The above example can be used to stop new browser windows from appearing when using frame structures. Works for many (but not all) browsers.
Example:
Description of meta tags
Meta title
Description of meta tags, how to write meta tags
This is one of the most important tags that search engines attach great importance to.
The title should contain keywords and be informative and attractive.
The link to your site in the search engine results will contain the text from the meta title tag, so
that this is, in some way, the calling card of the page. As a rule, in search results
systems get 50-80 characters from the title, so it is advisable to limit its size to this length.
Meta description tag and keywords tag
The content length of the meta description tag should not exceed 200 characters, and the length of keywords should not exceed 1000 characters. This is due to the fact that search servers, as a rule, use exactly these values when indexing information about your site. You can get a negative result if search engines discard part of the description that exceeds the established norms, as a result of which not all the desired information will be included in the catalog, or the server will simply reject the registration of your site. In the keywords tag you need to enter words or combinations of words by which you want to promote your site. If the site has minimum tic and pr or both of these parameters are zero, then it is better to add low-frequency words - these are those words for which the number of search engine requests per month is minimal (for example, from 10 to 50). The density of keywords in the text should be about 5%, i.e. There should be 5 keywords per 100 words. Where can you get words and phrases so that you can then insert them into the description meta tag and the keywords tag?
These services will help you find popular keywords for meta name keywords content:
ad.rambler.ru/swrds/wrds.pl - identify popular keywords in Rambler.
wordstat.yandex.ru - determine popular keywords in Yandex.
stat.go.mail.ru - determine popular keywords in the Mail.Ru system.
ajx.ru - identify popular keywords in the unofficial Yandex Direct service.
www.webconfs.com - bourgeois service showing keywords for search engines.
You need to insert a description of your page into the description meta tag; it will be displayed during a search, so it must be beautifully composed. You can also include in the description popular keywords that you specified for meta name keywords content.
Black hat optimization methods:
- do not include terms, words and phrases that are not related to the topic of your page, since on the Internet such behavior is considered incorrect and will be considered spam, as a result of which search engines may ban your site;
- do not use hidden text and hidden links, this will certainly help you get promoted a little, but in the end - a ban;
- cloaking and hidden redirection;
- pages, subdomains and domains that largely repeat
content of each other;
- portal pages intended exclusively for search engines and other cookie cutters, such as affiliate programs, where there is little or no original content.
I want to say that the constant use of workarounds and prohibited techniques in website promotion can cause very significant harm to it, up to a ban and exclusion of the site from the search engine index.
Other tags
This means that if the bot has identified the page as a document (i.e. it is not an image file or anything like that), it should index it
What this says is that if the document type is dynamic, then the bot should return regularly for re-indexing.
This is a request to the bot on how often to reindex the document. Not an instruction, but a wish. The bot can ignore it. In general, you should be careful here - if you write revisit-after 1 day and do not change the page at all, the bot may be offended and consider this an attempt to spam him. In this case, wait for sanctions (up to and including departure from the index). In principle, you don’t have to write revisit-after at all.
Tags , , , , and
Description of meta tags: h1 h2 h3, meta name Author, meta name copyright, reply-to, meta name Refresh, meta Name Date, meta http-equiv expires, meta http-equiv content-type. That is, in the comments we write a first-level title containing keywords. Yandex does not index what is in comment tags, we write it exclusively for Rambler. The written phrase in the h1 tag will have higher search priority than in h2, h3, h4, h5 and h6.
meta name Author
or
meta name copyright
Copyright notice
meta name reply-to
Email Indication
meta name Refresh
Example:
This example loads the INDEX.HTM document in 10 seconds.
meta Name Date
Site creation date.
Example:
meta http-equiv expires
In order for the browser to take the latest version of the document when viewing a document, and not the version from the cache, it is used
meta http-equiv content-type
To determine by the browser the language in which the page is written, it is used
meta http-equiv refresh
If an inexperienced Webmaster copies your page and leaves the following tag in it, then when you access this page the browser will automatically go to your page
Often, while spending time on forums and in communities of Webmasters and optimizers, I notice how many people ask the same questions and begin to argue about the topic - is it necessary to fill out meta tags, in particular keywords? It is very difficult to answer this question to your interlocutor in a nutshell, so I will try to explain everything “on fingers” in a new topic.
Do I need to fill in keywords?I’ll say right away that you can fill in the keywords, or you can leave them empty. In both cases, you will not see the difference - I will explain why later. And there is no point in analyzing the TOP 10, there is no logic here and you won’t be able to prove anything.
To a greater extent, I would like to examine the question of when this tag is used and mistakes are made. In some cases, they can only reduce the visibility of your site.
Okay, let's see why it's not necessary to fill out the keywords meta tag? Back in the distant past, when search algorithms were simpler than they are now, optimizers filled out this tag in order to help search engines understand what was on the page or what the text was about.
Soon, Webmasters began to abuse the use of keywords in this meta tag. And over time, the importance of keywords was reduced. Today, new ranking factors of better quality have appeared in sufficient quantities.
Yes, in the Yandex documentation for Webmasters, you will read that keywords will help the PS to better understand the contents of the page. But filling it out will not give you an advantage over your competitors. Since the usefulness of the content does not change and cannot be considered a “weighty and significant” keywords tag.
As I already said, working on a website is a series of actions that work together. Filling in the keywords tag can only be a “small plus” in the overall operation of a large system.
Common mistakes in using keywordsAnd if you do decide to use meta tags, let's do it right. Let's look at the main mistakes that optimizers or webmasters (executors) make. All options, real examples that I came across while working with client sites.
1. Repeat keywords on all pagesIn this situation, the contractor selects “general” keywords that describe the theme of the entire site and inserts it on all pages.
Rule No. 1: each page of your resource is unique, so keywords must be unique as well.
2. Spam keys on one page“Classics of the genre” - the performer selects a footcloth from “a dozen” keywords, using the main key, using various complementary words and changing the order of the keys in the bunch. It’s more painful to watch when this option is used together with the first example that I gave at the beginning.
Rule No. 2: a large number of keywords in keywords can only lead to sanctions from search engines, but will not make your site better. It is enough to use 2-3 keywords.
3. Punctuation marksSometimes it happens that each word is separated by a comma. Or, on the contrary, they put words without commas; I don’t understand where this tendency came from.
Rule No. 3: a keyword is not necessarily one word, more often it is a phrase of several words, separated by a comma.
4. General keysIn this case, individual words are used that have too broad a meaning or concept.
Rule #4: Make your keywords more specific by using phrases.
5. Using keywords on service pagesThe artist uses keywords on pages such as:
Rule No. 5: in fact, these pages are already unique and low-frequency, so there is no need to use keywords. Moreover, by using generic keywords, you create cannibalization on the pages of your site.
6. Target action on the pageAs you know, search engines divide information into segments. Let's say a performer sells something, but does not use a commercial key in the key.
Rule No. 6: on a certain page of your website, a person performs an action: finds out something, downloads, buys, orders, watches (photos and videos), and so on. Use keywords based on the purpose and action the user should take.
7. Keywords using regionIt happens that they use keys listing cities on commercial resources located in the immediate vicinity where a product is sold or a service is provided.
Rule No. 7: there is no need to indicate the region in keywords; for this, search engines take data from other sources, for example, Yandex.Directory.
How to fill it out correctlyThat's all for me, I want to add that today you can use synonymous keys on one page that have the same semantic meaning for the user. For example, order sushi at home And sushi delivery- the meaning does not change.
To summarize, if you are in doubt and do not know how to fill in the keywords correctly, it is better to leave this meta tag empty.
Today, I continue to fill out this tag. I use 2-3 keywords, copying them using Yandex.Wordstat - keyword statistics.
If you have anything to add, or you have your own opinion on this topic, let's discuss it in the comments.
I prepared this material for beginners in SEO, as well as for website owners who do not know how to correctly fill out meta tags. Let's consider what is relevant now and what is no longer used by the search engine when ranking a site.
Let's start by defining what meta tags are?Meta tags are (X)HTML tags designed to provide structured metadata about a web page. Typically specified in the head tag of an (X)HTML document. Meta tags do not appear on the page and have no visible content. They contain additional information for search robots and various software.
In SEO, when we hear something like “We need to add meta tags on the page,” the Description and Keywords meta tags immediately pop up in our heads, and, of course, Title. What is SEO without this tag? I'll start right away with them.
Title tagIt is also called the Title meta tag, although, from a technical point of view, this is not so. A very important tag that affects ranking is the title of the page and is often used by search robots when forming a snippet title. Therefore, in addition to the fact that you need to add basic keywords to the Title, it is important to monitor its attractiveness. It should encourage users to go to the site.
Title should:
For landing pages, categories, sections, I recommend filling out the Description manually.
You can automatically fill in the Description, for example, for product cards. To do this, use templates like:
Description: In our online store + “store name” + available prices from + “price” + to + “name of product card” + with delivery to + “city”.
Description: “Product card name” + at an affordable price + “price” + from an online store + “store name” + with delivery to + “city”.
What not to do:
This meta tag does not affect rankings, but since Yandex writes that meta keywords can be taken into account, I recommend filling it out by adding 3-5 phrases relevant to the content, separated by commas.
The expires meta tag is also used to control caching. The date is set in the meta tag. When it passes, the browser must use a repeated network request rather than the existing page cache. The date is specified in RFC850 format.
Usage example:
Meta tag content-language - indicates the language of the document.
Usage example:
In HTML5, specifying the language is simplified:
I tried to list, as it seemed to me, the most interesting meta tags. If you are interested in other meta, I recommend reading the materials: Meta tags that are supported by Google and Using Yandex HTML elements.
Let's sum it upThere are quite a lot of meta tags, but as an optimizer, most often you have to use the Title tag, meta description, meta keywords in SEO. If you are a beginner SEO specialist or a website owner, I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the webinar “Rules for Forming Title and Description” by our SEO-TeamLead Evgeniy Aralov:
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