Meta tag is a coding statement or tag in the HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that outlines some elements or features of the contents of a web page. The information given in the meta tag is employed by the Internet search engines to index a page, so that when anyone searches for that type of information, he will be able to find the page. The tag is placed as a part of heading at the top of the HTML in the web page. The tag is written in the usual form i.e. <META name=”something” content=”something else”>
Unlike other tags, it doesn’t need an end tag </META>, but it has to be made sure that each tag doesn’t include any line breaks.
As per the search engine optimization, when a user refers to meta tags, he is actually referring to the meta description tag and meta keyword tag. Though the meta description tag and the meta keyword tag are not viewed by users, they provide meta document information to user agents like search engines. The meta description tag comprises one or two line description of the page. The meta keyword tag enlists the words or phrases that explains the contents of the page in an optimum way. Both the tags are used by the search engines in putting a page in their index. Sometimes, they are also used to provide the user a summary of the page’s contents. Following is an example of simple meta tags for a Book Review site.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Book review. Reading resources. Discounted books</TITLE>
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”book review, reading resource, discounted books, list discounted books”>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”A book review and reading resource page including a great list of discounted books”>
</HEAD>
What are Meta Tags Used For?
The meta tags in the web pages are used by the search engines as a source of information that serves them to determine how to list or rank a website. However, they don’t guarantee to provide a top ranking on crawler-based search engines. They help in identifying the developer of the page, what the page follows, keywords, description and the refresh parameters that will help the page to reload itself or load to another page. They offer the website owner an ability to control the way the web pages are been described by some search engines and also prevent the pages from being indexed. Meta tags can tell a browser what character set to employ or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content or not.
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