What are Meta Tag's




They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages.
Meta tag's describe the page to search engines.
(Ie, Web Crawlers, Spiders)
This page will help you in building your meta tags.



Now onto the other meta Tag, The one more commonly used.
Meta Name and Content



DESCRIPTION = Meta Tag NAME,
CONTENT = Short description of the page

When you do a search, and your search results come up. Under the name
and web addy of the site, it will give you a paragraphed description
for that site. This is the Meta tag "DESCRIPTION"
In some cases, if there is not a meta tag for your Description, the search
engine spider "crawler" will take the first few lines of text on your
page itself and use it for the search results description of your page

Note: when describing your page, The search engine will
only read the first few lines of your Meta Tag,
So keep your description short, sweet and to the point!




KEYWORDS = "Single word description",
CONTENT = tables, webtv, msntv, html help, html, help, etc, etc..

Next time you do a search, that little "search box" you put your
word in to find a page, these are what search engins look for to
help in your search for the best results

In your key words, when designing your page and you sit there
saying to yourself.. what Keywords do I use... Think of yourself
looking for "your page", you think of words that YOU would use
in that little search box.. you want the best results dont you?
I sure do.. That is the way to make up words to help describe
your page.. What is your page about? Html, Tables, and help?
Those are the words to use.. "Single word Description"

Little Notes in making your key words:
  • Dont use too many words.. this will "confuse" the search engine
    spider. Just good HTML editing NOT too use a over abundance of words.
  • Each Comma is placed to "make a new word".. separate your words
    using comma's.. that will tell the Spider (Search engine) to look
    for a new word for better categorizing.
  • Always use small case letters.
  • Most of the search Engine Spiders do NOT support this tag any
    longer. They use the most common word(s) that is used in your HTML document.




AUTHOR = Copyright tag,
CONTENT = Name or mail address of the person designing the page

This tag is specifically for an internal search engine used by
Search Engine Watch to index its own content

Spiders will also grab your e-mail address if it is added to
your html docuemt (In your page). For example:
"For any question or comments about my page,
you can e-mail me at Yourname@blah-blah.com

(Such as Google)




ROBOTS = Page not to be Indexed ,
CONTENT = NOINDEX

One other meta tag worth mentioning is the robots tag.
This lets you specify that a particular page should NOT be indexed
by a search engine. To keep spiders out, simply add this text
between your head tags on each page you don't want indexed.
The format is shown above.



GENERATOR = NAME
CONTENT = Your HTML editor on your Computer

This is a simple Tag, Most editors use this Tag Automaticly
This tag is not needed if you do your HTML editing by hand ;-)

Other Meta Tags

There are many other meta tags that exist beyond those explored
on this. For example, on some web pages, if you were to view
the source code, you would find "channel" and "date", As well as
"Author" meta tags. These mean nothing to web-wide crawlers
such as Google. They are specifically for an internal search
engine used by Search Engine Watch to index its own content.
There are also "Dublin Core" meta tags. The intent is that these
can be used for both "internal" search engines and w.w.w ones.
However, no major web-wide search engine supports these tags.
A few Links to help you get started on your META TAGS:

Meta Tag Generator

How to use Meta Tags

META TAG Tutorial

Meta Tag's, What are they

Hope this helps you in your meta building..
Most HTML editors, Netscape Navigator, and
Internet Exploer Generate these tag's automaticly

If you decide not to use these meta Tag's in your page,
That is ok too. These tag's will not affect how the
page "looks and feels"

WebMistress of this page: Tatiana E. Tatiana@otbd.net