Meta tags are special HTML tags that contain information or Meta data that is readable by browsers, search engines and other programs. Meta data is commonly referred to as “data about data”. It is documented information about a specific set of data and is essentially used to describe the contents of a webpage. Meta tags only contain page information, they do not change the appearance of the page. These tags are placed in the heading section of HTML code and are only visible to users when viewing the source page. The following is how Meta tags appear in a website’s source code.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>How to Create a Meta Tag</TITLE>
<META name =“description” content=”Everything you want to know about Meta Tags”>
<META name =”keywords” content=”Keyword 1, Keyword 2, Keyword 3, Keyword 4”>
</HEAD>
from http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html , July 2011
Are Meta Tags helpful? Meta tags are usually used for Search Engine Optimization and are thought to help web crawlers index your pages more accurately. Although at one time Meta tags held tremendous value for website ranking they no longer carry the same importance. Over time, less and less weight has been assigned to Meta tags due to their manipulation and user abuse. Eventually websites began to perform keyword stuffing (excessive use of keywords) and listed irrelevant information in their Meta tags to try to attract and mislead traffic to their pages. As users caught on to the black hat SEO techniques for Meta tags the search engines started to divert their attention and place more emphasis on actual content. Shifting their focus allowed the search engines to evaluate web pages appropriately based on visible content rather than depending on a Meta tag to deliver accurate information.
Meta tags no longer play the same critical role in SEO as they once did, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are all worthless. It is believed that certain Meta tags can still generate greater… Read the rest
