To inform search engines and AI engines what is contained on a page, we use meta tags throughout the pages and posts.
Search engines and AI crawlers do not view a page in a browser as a human does. Crawlers parse the raw code of web pages to decipher what is on them.
Search engines know little about a page unless they trawl through the code each time they visit a website, which is resource-intensive. Meta tags are a way of giving them direction, helping them in their job.
Arguably, the most important tags are the meta tags at the top of the page, and they remain crucial for optimisation today.
What is a Meta Tag?
A meta tag is a line of code that contains important information about a web page.
A meta tag is part of the page’s code and cannot be seen by the user.
There are four important meta tags.
- Title tag – The title of your page. You can see this on the browser tab or when you print the page.
- Meta description – Description of the page.
- Meta keywords: a string of keywords or phrases.
- Meta robots – tells search engine crawlers whether to list the page.
These meta tags help the search engines to understand what the page is about.
Meta tags have been abused in the past, and the way search engines use them has changed over the years and continues to evolve.
Title Tag
This is now the most important tag used when optimising a page for Google. They are also visible to the user.
Title tags are displayed at the top of the browser when viewing the website; they appear at the top of the page in the code, and on search results pages and AI listings, they are listed above the meta description.
If there is a spelling mistake in your title tag, rest assured it will appear on the search engine result pages (SERPs).
The title tag should be between 40 and 55 characters long. It should match the page’s content and include the keyword or phrase you are using for the page.
Meta Description Attribute
<META name =”description” content=”To inform search engines we use tags on pages. Arguably the most important tags are located at the top of the page, called meta tags What are meta tags?.”>
Another widely used meta tag, the meta description, tells search engines what your page is about. This also appears to the public, under the title tag.
The meta description should be between 130 and 155 characters long. It should match the page’s content, include a call to action, and contain the keyword or phrase you are using for the page. The meta description should be unique to that page.
Meta Keywords Attribute
<META name =”keywords” content=”what are meta tags, meta keyword attribute, meta description attribute, meta tags explained, metatags explained, search engine optimisation,seo”>
As of September 2009, Google no longer uses the keyword meta tag to rank pages.
However, we would still advise using the meta keyword tag for other search engines.
Keyword Stuffing
A web page on ‘cheap clothing’ could use popular words in the meta tags like “gucci designer wear”, wrongly thinking they could manipulate Google search results and encourage traffic to their page. Google penalises websites that do this.
If your meta tags do not complement your web copy, your site may be blocked from search results.
Will Metadata Continue to Be Crucial?
We may continue to see metadata used in the relationship between the website developer and the web crawler.
Meta tags show we have taken time to think about what is on the page and to reiterate that to the crawler, rather than producing content via machine.
Over time, this will develop, of course, because website owners can now inject metadata in bulk, so less care is taken over it.
Our advice is to remain careful and not get lazy with metadata, whilst we see how the landscape changes.
