Optimizing HTML Meta Tags

Within the HTML code behind your page, there are things called ‘meta tags’. These are short notes within the header of the code that describe some aspects of your page to the search engines.Although there is some debate over how important meta tags are to SEO, it’s generally agreed that they shouldn’t be ignored.

Title Tag

Because of its function as the headline of your SERPs listing, the search engines figure it’s likely you’ll make it something fairly relevant to the content of the target page, in order to get people to click through. As a result, they pay more attention to it than the other tags when indexing your site.Try to use your keyword at least once in the Title, as close to the beginning of the tag as possible. But don’t use it again and again and again. That’s keyword stuffing, and you could be penalize. You have 66 characters including spaces in which to write a compelling, keyword rich headline for your listing. The better your title, the more people will click on it. Be descriptive and accurate.

Also it can be a good idea to include your company name in the Title. Above all else, this helps develop brand recognition especially when you rank on page 1,and lends credibility to your listing. E.g: Effective Weight Loss and Control Tips - Domain.com And finally, it’s best not to use the same Title tag on every page. It’s supposed to be a headline, compelling searchers to click through to your page. If it’s generic enough to be suitable for every page, it’s not going to be particularly compelling. What’s more, if Google sees duplicate Title tags, it may choose to display DMOZ data instead of your actual tag data.

The Title Tag looks like this:

<title> Effective Weight Loss and Control Tips- Domain.com </title>

Description Tag

Think of your description tag as the copy for an ad. You have 155 characters (including spaces) in which to craft an informative, compelling description. Try to use your keyword at least once in the Description, as close to the start as possible. For a product website, you might consider including the vital statistics about each product in the Description tag. E.g. Brand names, model numbers, colors, etc.

Note, however, that you don’t actually have to define a Description tag. Most search engines are capable of extracting what they need for the description from your site copy. Danny Dover, of SEOmoz, recommends defining a Description tag for the Home page, and leaving the rest blank and letting the search engines decide what to display (they’ll choose what content to pull from your page based on the search query).

I’m not convinced. If you leave the search engines to their own devices, there’s no guarantee they’ll choose a section that’s well written or even intended to be the “copy for an ad” as I’ve suggested the Description should be. I recommend defining the Description on all pages. It’s not a good idea to use the same Description on every page. It’s supposed to be helpful and persuade searchers to click through to your page. If it’s generic enough to be suitable for every page, it’s not going to be particularly engaging, compelling or helpful. What’s more, if Google sees duplicate Description tags, it may choose to display DMOZ data instead of your actual tag data.

The Description Tag looks like this:
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="From healthy diet plans to helpful weight loss tools, here you'll find the latest diet news and information." />


Keywords Tag

A comma-separated list of keywords that are most relevant to the subject matter of the page. Stick to about 300 characters and don’t repeat your keywords over and over. You can, however, include variations of your keyword, such as “weight loss”, “weight loss tips”, “weight loss guide” and “weight loss strategies.” You can also re-use a keyword so long as it’s part of a different phrase. The Keywords tag isn’t visible to visitors of your website unless they view the source. It’s really just a legacy from a time when the search engines used it as their sole means of identifying a site’s subject matter.

These days, most search engines pay it little or no mind. The key exception is Yahoo. Yahoo likes your Keywords tag to be ‘aligned’ with your web copy. So don’t include keywords in your tag that don’t appear in your copy if you want to rank in Yahoo.

Keywords Tag looks like this:
<meta name="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="weight loss, weight loss tips, weight loss guide, weight loss strategies" />