SEO Clinic: All About Meta Tags:

Welcome to the SEO Clinic here at 1AutomationWiz. In our ongoing effort to give you the tools you need to succeed, we've got Jerry West, SEO Testing Expert to inject us with site marketing advice.

In this section, we're going to go over Meta Tags. While Meta Tags are often misunderstood, incorrectly used and even ignored, let's go over which ones you should use, how to use them and also which ones to completely ignore.

The recommendations here are based on actual testing results, not "guesses" as to what works and what doesn't.

When people talk about Meta Tags the first thing which comes to mind is the Keyword Meta Tag. Let's just put it to rest that the Keyword Tag is pretty much dead, "mostly dead", if you will. However, let's dive right in, and let's cover some basics of the <head> section which you may or may not have been aware of.

Here is an example of my site:

Head Section Meta Tags

1) This is the DTD Statement - While not necessarily in the HEAD section it is usually the first tag on a web page. I have reported it is vital to have this tag in your web pages since 2003, but you also need to make sure it is the RIGHT tag.

For example, if your code is written in HTML 3.2 and you insert a 4.01 tag, well, that can cause problems. Make sure you are using the right tag. If you don't know, consult the W3C or your web designer.

Testing shows that having this tag in place not only allows your site to load better in major browsers, but also allows for faster and deeper indexing by some search engine spiders. Learn more about DTD Statements.

2) Character Set Tag - Why is this the first tag and not the Title? Listing the Title tag first is an old, outdated method. Instead, you want the character set tag to be first. Here's why, since the character set should be defined BEFORE any text appears in the browser, and the Title Tag appears in the browser as text, you should have this tag before the Title tag. Learn more about Meta Content Type.

3) The Title Tag - The Title Tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text in the search results.

The Title is indexed by all major search engines. In terms of SEO, the Title Tag is of average importance to Google for competitive phrases and Google will only display the first 64 characters. Don't make the mistake of just using your company name. Your site's Title MUST grab attention, create curiosity and evoke emotion to get the click. If you don't get the click, your top ranking is worthless. Learn the difference between the Title Tag and the Meta Title Tag.

4) Meta Description Tag - The Description works with the Title to attract potential customers. When a prospect performs a search, the results displayed are usually the Title (hyperlinked) and the Description.

Often, you should spend the same amount of time writing your Title and Description as you would spend on an important ad. If you do not include a Description, most search engines, by default, will use the first 30-40 words of your copy, which could look very unappealing to a customer.

Descriptions should always include your focused keywords, but be careful not to keyword stuff. The majority of the time, if your Description tag contains the keyword being searched Google will use your Description tag, if it doesn't, it will pull a snippet from the body text. Get more tips on Google Inclusion.

5) Meta Keyword Tag - Google still ignores this tag. I personally still enter about ten keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag; however, I leave all of my "money phrases" out as the Keyword Tag is the first place competitors will look to steal information. Again, do not keyword stuff this tag, it doesn't work like it did ten years ago. Get more information on Effective Keyword Research.

6) Meta Robots Tag - The robots meta tag is used by new or unskilled webmasters. For example, <Meta Name="robots" content="index,follow"> is useless. This is what a search engine does by default. However, there are other useful variations, such as keeping a page from being indexed. Instead, use the Google Meta Tags exclusions for GoogleBot.

7) Meta Author Tag - This is an area for the author to place their name. The Author Meta Tag is required to meet Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) validation. It does nothing for SEO or usability, but I highly recommend you use it on at least your home page. Read more on the Meta Author Tag.

8) Meta Image Toolbar - This isn't a widely used meta tag and it isn't required. The Meta Image Toolbar is useful if you have larger images on your page. It will remove the "context icons" that appear in IE so your site looks cleaner. It adds no value to your SEO endeavors, but is of average importance to the user. I recommend using this tag if you have images with a height or width greater than 100 pixels.

9) Google Sitemaps - This is, hands down, the best way to get a site crawled and deeply indexed. While I have seen Google Sitemaps be effective in regards to a new site; it does not help you avoid the Google Sandbox (natural new site filter).

Using Google Sitemaps allows for more of your site's pages to be found, which is a good thing. Get Google Sitemap Tips.

Other Meta Tags:

Meta Abstract: To give a short summary of the description of the web page.

Used primarily with academic papers. Normally, the content of this tag will be 10 words or less.

<Meta Name="Abstract" CONTENT="Short description of page">

Recommendation: Optional. Will not assist you with the major search engines. If, however, your content is highly specialized, the use of this tag will allow search engines in your field of expertise to index your site properly. According to testing, Google, Yahoo! and MSN do not use this tag as part of their algorithm.

Meta Content Language: Declares the natural language of the document. Also known as "Meta Name Language".

Used by robots to categorize by language.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language"CONTENT="en-GB">

Recommendation: Use only if your web page is written in non-US English. While I have not tested this tag, as I don't have any non-English sites, I have had reports from webmasters I trust that it helps non-US English sites get properly catalogued by search engines.

Meta Content Script Type: To specify the default scripting language of the document.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Script-Type" CONTENT="text/javascript">

Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines do not need this tag to detect scripts, they can do so on their own. Browsers do not use this tag either, as they have other detection methods in place.

Meta Content Style Type: To specify the default Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language for the document.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type"CONTENT="text/css">

Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines do not need to know the style sheet. Web browsers also do not look to the meta tags for style sheet information.

Meta Copyright: To include copyright, trademark, patent or other information pertaining to intellectual property.

<Meta Name="copyright" content="© 2007">

Recommendation: Not required. Please know that this tag will not protect your site's content or your intellectual property. Instead, consult your attorney to ensure you are protected properly.

Meta Designer: To declare the designer of the website.

<Meta Name="Designer" CONTENT="Art Vandaley">

Recommendation: Optional. Usually this tag is used by web designers as advertising or to catch people who hijack their designs. It should be understood that this tag is not supported by any search engine.

Meta Distribution: To declare the distribution of your web content.

There are three classifications of distribution: Global (the entire web), Local (reserved for the local IP block of your site), and IU (Internal Use, not for public distribution).

<Meta Name="Distribution" CONTENT="Global">

Recommendation: Do not use. If you want to restricted distribution, use the robots.txt tag or your HTAccess file.

Meta Expires: To declare the date and time after which the web document should be considered expired.

<META HTTP-EQUIV="expires" CONTENT="Wed,26 Feb 2004 08:21:57 GMT">

Recommendation: Do not use. While this is good in concept, it is impractical for search engines and not only do search engines not read the tag, but according to my testing, browsers ignore it too.

Looking to stop Google from caching your site? Even if you use this tag Google will cache your page. This tag is worthless, don't bother with it.

Reference: Meta Expires Tag

Meta Generator: To declare the name and version number of the publishing tool used to create the page.

Could be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.

<Meta Name="Generator" CONTENT="FrontPage 4.0">

Recommendation: Do not use. If you have these tags, delete them if you can. They serve no purpose for your pages.

Meta Google: The following options are exclusively for use with Google:

googlebot: noarchive - do not allow Google to display cached content
googlebot: nosnippet - do not allow Google to display excerpt or cached content
googlebot: noindex - similar to the robots meta element
googlebot: nofollow - do not allow Google to pass any PageRank or link popularity to the link served.

Recommendation: Optional. You generally do not need to use these tags unless you want Google to do something specific with your site. The Google Meta Tag is one of the few meta tags Google will read, index and obey.