What Are Meta Tags?
Meta tags area unit snippets of text that describe a page’s content; the meta tags don’t seem on the page itself, however solely within the page’s code. we tend to all grasp tags from web log culture, and meta tags area unit a lot of or less a similar factor, very little content descriptors that facilitate tell search engines what an internet page is concerning.
The only distinction between tags you’ll see (on a web log post, say) and tags you can’t see is location: meta tags solely exist in hypertext mark-up language, sometimes at the “head” of the page, then area unit solely visible to go looking engines (and folks that grasp wherever to look). The “meta” stands for “metadata,” that is that the quite information these tags offer – information concerning the information on your page.
Meta Tags Help SEO?
Yes, they do, however not all of them and not all of the time. one amongst the goals of this page is to clarify that meta tags assist you to urge the word out and that became passé. (See grasp Your Meta Tags below).
If you would like to seek out out whether or not a given page is mistreatment meta tags, simply right-click anyplace on the page and choose “View Page supply.”
A new tab can open in Chrome (in Firefox, it’ll be a pop-up window). The half at the highest, or “head” of the page, is wherever the meta tags might be.
Know Your Meta Tags
There square measure four major varieties of meta tags price knowing concerning and we’ll say all of them here. Some aren’t as helpful as they once were. Others square measure price victimisation often, and can terribly doubtless increase your traffic by belongings Google understand United Nations agency you’re and what you give. (There square measure over four sorts of meta tags, however some square measure less common or not relevant to net marketing).
The four varieties we’ll discuss here are:
Meta Keywords Attribute – A series of keywords you see relevant to the page in question.
Title Tag – this can be the text you will see at the highest of your browser. Search engines read this text because the “title” of your page.
Meta Description Attribute – a quick description of the page.
Meta Robots Attribute – a sign to go looking engine crawlers (robots or “bots”) on what they ought to do with the page.
1) Meta Keywords Attribute
Meta Keywords square measure associate example of a meta tag that doesn’t create a lot of sense to use recently. Years ago, the meta keyword tags could are useful, however not any longer.
Remember back in preschool and once your teacher gave you a stern look and aforesaid “if you can’t stop victimization those crayons whereas I’m talking, I’m getting to take them aloof from you,” and you didn’t listen and, to your shock, they were so taken away? That’s variety of what Google did with meta keywords.
Years ago, marketers hopeful for page views would insert keywords whole unrelated to their pages into their code in a shot to pirate traffic from the additional standard pages, people who really were concerning Lindsay immortal, or whoever was then trending. This was referred to as “keyword stuffing.” Google eventually got wise this and determined within the finish to devalue the tool. recently Google doesn’t use meta keywords in its ranking rule the least bit, as a result of they are too simple to abuse.
2) Title Tag
Title tags, on the opposite hand, area unit the foremost vital of all of the meta tags mentioned here. These tags have a true impact on search rankings and, maybe even as significantly, area unit the sole one among the tags we’ll discuss here that area unit visible to the typical user. You’ll notice them at the highest of your browser (for organic search pages or for PPC landing pages):
This is significantly helpful if wish|you would like|you wish} to present the page one primary title for the user however want to clarify or change that info for SEO functions and for the user who’s shuffling multiple tabs on their desktop.
3) Meta Description Attribute
This is a quite helpful meta tag as, very simply, it explains to go looking engines and (sometimes) searchers themselves what your page is concerning. Let’s say you were googling the phrase “meta keywords” for instance. you may encounter the subsequent results:
It’s vital to notice that the outline tag won’t continuously show up within the results for a Google search (Google ofttimes picks a snipping of text from the page itself) however it’s helpful in alternative ways that. Google has conjointly explicit that keywords in meta descriptions won’t have an effect on your rankings. However, a compelling meta description tag may lure searchers to click through from the SERP to your web site, particularly if the outline includes the keywords they were looking for.
Google’s reasons square measure somewhat mysterious, however their actions speak loudly: meta keywords don’t abundant matter any longer, however meta descriptions most actually do.
4) Meta Robots Attribute
The search engines what to try and do along with your pages:
index/noindex – This tells the engines whether or not to indicate your page in search results or not.
follow/nofollow – This tells the engines what to try and do with links on your pages: whether or not they ought to trust and “follow” your links to successive page or not.
How To Use H1-H6 HTML Elements Properly
I invariably solely use one H1 component on any page. Google has suggested this within the past.
Many argue that having over one H1 per page is wise in some instances (and HTML5 definitely permits for this)
In the finish – it’ll rely entirely on the positioning you would like to create and also the audience it serves. i believe it’s vital to stay IMPLEMENTATION CONSISTENT across your entire web site to maximise usability. If victimisation multiple H1 – I definitely wouldn’t be stuffing them with keywords.
Proper Use Of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 heading elements:
I sometimes aim to use the H components as explained on top of, and solely reach level H3 as every page may be a epigrammatic investigation of 1 topic.
You can use any range of H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 components on any page.
You can use any range of H2-H6 components on anybody page, however this may be somewhat cumbersome for the standard internet designer.
So as you’ll be able to see there square measure multiple ways in which to implement these components. we might suggest that presumably you retain your pages specific concerning one topic and use
One H1 component (or tag, as several decision it)
As several wanted|pro re nata|PRN} H2 components to denote sections on the page (you ought to solely need one or 2 or three if you’re keeping your page epigrammatic.
Consider using H3 components for helpful link teams to different relevant sources however recent recommendation (2013) would be to undertake and keep headings for TEXT content and to not cluster model navigation, as an example