Meta Tags
A meta tag is a tag (that
is, a coding statement) in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that
describes some aspect of the contents of a Web page. The information that
you provide in a meta tag is used by search engines to index a page so
that someone searching for the kind of information the page contains will
be able to find it. The hidden meta tag is placed near the top of the HTML
in a Web page as part of the heading.
There are several kinds of
meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the
keywords meta tag and the description meta tag. The keywords
meta tag lists the words or phrases that best describe the contents of the
page. The description meta tag includes a brief one- or two-sentence
description of the page. Both the keywords and the description are used by
search engines in adding a page to their index. Some search engines also
use the description to show the searcher a summary of the page's contents.
Although most search
engines also use the contents of a page as a way to determine how to index
it, the creator of a Web page should be sure to include meta tags with
appropriate keywords and description. Well-written meta tags can help make
the page rank higher in search results.
|