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Meta tags are used to enhance webpage usability and visibility in browsers, different devices and search engines.
As you have asked to answer this question with every aspect (not merely SEO) because every meta tag is not for SEO use only.
>>Some of the meta tags are used to command the browser and search engines to do or don’t do some actions such as:
<meta name="robots" content="noodp,noydir"/> - Forbid search engines to use the title and meta description from open directory projects (dmoz and etc.)
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://example.com/" /> - commands the browser to redirect the page to another webpage or website.
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1"> - instruct the browser to shrink and stretch the webpage layout according to the device screen width.
>>Meta tags for search engines:
<meta name="description" content="We are installers and landscapers…Hampshire"/> - Most important SEO tag – Search engines use this tag to generate search results.
<meta name="keywords" content="Artificial Grass, Dorset, … UK manufactured"/> - it is not a reliable source of information for search engine.
>> Meta tags use for google, bing/yahoo, and alexa webmaster tool verification code:
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="google webmaster tool verification code here!" />
<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="Bing webmaster tool verification code here!" />
<meta name="alexaVerifyID" content="Alexa webmaster tool verification code here! />
>> Meta tags use to define website description, title, images, and site link to facebook:
<meta property='og:locale' content='en_US'/>
<meta property='og:type' content='article'/>
<meta property='og:title' content='Artificial Grass Dorset - Installers & Landscapers | Artificial Style'/>
<meta property='og:description' content='We are installers … Dorset & Hampshire'/>
<meta property='og:url' content='http://artificialstyle.co.uk/'/>
<meta property='article:publisher' content='https://www.facebook.com/artificialstylegrass?ref=hl'/>
<meta property='og:site_name' content='Artificial Grass Dorset'/>
<meta property='og:image' content='http://artificialstyle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wp2b602781_05_06.jpg'/>
>> Meta tags use to define website description, title, images, and site link to twitter:
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/>
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@https://twitter.com/ArtificialStyl1"/>
<meta name="twitter:domain" content="Artificial Grass Dorset"/>
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@https://twitter.com/ArtificialStyl1"/>
<meta name="twitter:image:src" content="http://artificialstyle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/wp2b602781_05_06.jpg"/>
Basm allah alrahman alrahim
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Meta tag is used for telling search engine about your page
Meta Keywords are out dated but Meta description is key part in SEO basecially you are telling search engine about your page ,
offcourse search engine never depend on this only and take snippet from your page text also but still if its relvant then more chance is in your listing your well formed Meta description appear and that increase chances of more clicks on your page
Excellent question, not a programmer myself but as far as I recall from studying it a bit; meta data is actually used regarding websites in terms of search optimization .. meta data is data about the data in a website, a bit confusing but it actually contains for example the domain name (just a single example).
Now, meta-tags are, well, tags that are used on the data within the website that will make the searchability (if that is even a word) of the website on search engines. Now, we can also conclude that SEO does the same thing regarding the website. meta tag is a toold actually that is used for SEO (some programmers refrain and call it SERP > Search Engine Results Positioning<).
Cutting the story short, meta-tag is an important tool for better SEO experience. Some tags are generic while some are created through html coding manually.
Want to get your website higher in the search results from a search engine? Then the best way is by the correct use of Meta tags. As95% people using search engines only look at the top20 search results, it is important to get your website as high as possible. Several meta tags where introduced by the popular search engines, Infoseek and AltaVista, to help there search engines index web pages, most now use meta tags to index pages. If you want your website indexed then consider using Meta tags. Meta tags go in the head of your web page, in-between the HTML tags, <head> and </head>. There are a number of different Meta tags that you can use, but the most important ones are the Description and the Keywords Meta tags as well as having a title for the web page.
TitleThe title of your web page should also be in the document head and is the mot important 'non content' part of your page as it carries the most weighting with search engines. You should keep this below60 characters and include your most important keywords first, if you have a company of brand name then it is often better to palace this at the end after your most important keywords for the page.
<title>Meta Tags Optimisation Tutorial - Web Wiz SEO Article</title>Description
This tag is often used by search engines for the description of your web page. It will not affect the ranking or indexing of your web page, so think of it as an advert for your page and write your description as a short ad of under160 characters to encourage people to view your page.
<meta name= "description" content="Tips on how to optimise your Meta Tags to get your website higher in search engine results." />Keywords
To help get your website up in the ratings you can supplement the title and description with a list of keywords, separated by commas, that some one might type into a search engine when looking for a site like yours. Google will ignore keywords meta tags, but other search engines do use this to help index your website.
<meta name="keywords" content="meta tags,tutorial,training,html" />Rating
This is used to give the web page a rating for the appropriateness for kids. The ratings are, general, mature, restricted, and14 years.
<meta name="rating" content="general" />The rest of the tags are not necessary but I shall run through them anyway.
AuthorThis is used to identify the author of the web page.
<meta name="author" content="Web Wiz " />Copyright
This one identifies any copyright information there is for the web page.
<meta name="copyright" content="2014, Web Wiz " />Expires
This meta tag is used by responsible web masters to let the search engine know when the page expires and can be removed from the search engines directory. It can either be set to never, or a date in the format day, month, year, eg.28 June2003.
<meta name="expires" content="never"/>Distribution
Tells the search engine who the page is meant for and can be set to; global, for everyone, local, for regional sites, and IU, for Internal Use.
<meta name="distribution" content="global" />Robots
This Meta tag is used is used to tell the search engine whether you want the web page indexed or not. You only really need to use this Meta tag if you DON'T wont your web page indexed. The values for this tag are: -
index(default) Index the page noindex Don't index the page nofollow Don't index any pages hyper-linked to this page none Same as "noindex, nofollow"<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" />
Meta Tags Example
Below is an example of the head of a document containing Meta tags for search engines and a title for the web page: -
<head><title>Meta Tags Optimisation Tutorial - Web Wiz SEO Article</title>
<meta name="description" content="Tips on how to optimise your Meta Tags to get your website higher in search engine results." /><meta name="keywords" content="meta tags, tutorial, training, HTML" /><meta name="rating" content="general" /><meta name="copyright" content="2014, Web Wiz " /> <meta name="revisit-after" content="31 Days" /> <meta name="expires" content="never"><meta name="distribution" content="global" /> <meta name="robots" content="index" />
</head>
As a former front end developer I can tell you that the SEO optimization is critical for your business.
The meta tag helps you position yourself in the search engine when key words are being involved.
When it comes to e-commerce, online marketing and advertisement your goal it to appear when there is demand in your sphere of development. You can do that by positioning key meta words in the description, generate traffic when registering your company in other social web sites. Or if you have a budget you can ad Google Analytic and Ad award which will ensure that you appear in top10 or20 with your store/business location and additional information for a mont or2. With out this you can forget about online business.
Does any one have any additions, corrections or complementary answers? Please go ahead…
