In this post we tell you useful information about meta tags. What are they and what are they for? As well as practical recommendations to get the most out of them in SEO Ranking.
Defining the meta tags
Meta tags or also called meta tags, are known in English as meta tags. They are defined as HTML code tags placed in the <Head> section of each web page. These meta tags are read by the spiders (they are not visible to Internet users) and indicate a summary description of that page. That is its primary function. Additionally, they can point the bots to some concrete instructions such as what content to index or crawl.
For the Internet user, meta tags tell you the fundamental theme of a page. And the way these meta tags are made visible to your human eyes is through the so-called Snippet. The Snippet is that extract that appears on the results pages of Google and other search engines.
It is a summary of the content of the page with a link to it. As you may have seen, every time Google offers you results, it is made up of the link, the URL and the descriptive text.
It is important to note that meta tags must be included in each of the pages that make up a website. They are indications directed to the robots for the treatment and description of each page individually .
For the connoisseurs this may be obvious. For the rest of the mortals, we tell you that, to mark specific instructions to the bots in a global way, there are other resources. For example, the robots.txt file (different from the robots meta tag).
This file tells the spiders what content to index from the general point of view of the entire site. The goals always do it individually page by page.
In short, with meta tags you tell search engines information about your pages. And these, in turn, tell it to search engine users.
Meta tags. A grain does not make the barn, but it helps the partner
Once the meta tags are defined, we can place them within the SEO context. Meta tags are an added factor to the whole set of SEO Ranking. A contribution that will always add positive points, although by itself it is not definitive for SEO. Something that happens with the vast majority of organic Ranking factors. They are not the panacea individually, but together they help the whole. So don’t neglect meta tags and always optimize them.
Main meta tags: the meta description ( meta description )
We start with one of the most important meta tags. As its name suggests, the meta description describes the theme of your page. And that description will appear in the snippet of the search engine results block.
It is that descriptive fragment that convinces you or not to click on the link to that page. If you don’t take care of this tag, the robots will. And they will do it by selecting a part of the text of your web page to include it in the snippet.
This may not be representative, useful or attractive to the user. That is, if you have a good meta description, you will have a much higher chance of users visiting your page.
Its syntax in HTML:
<html>
<head>
…
<meta name= “Description” content= “How to be a meta tag McGyver. Learn what they are for and how to make the most of them to improve your SEO. Valuable and useful information for your website” >
…
Improve meta tags. Optimizing the meta description
Our recommendation is that you write a good summary, where you include your keyword (never abuse it or repeat it because that would be counterproductive).
And it doesn’t make sense to include a keyword in the description if it isn’t part of your page afterwards. In that case, Google ignores this tag.
You have to be very appealing to the reader. So get creative and use different descriptions for each page in relation to each specific content . Count your differentiating factor if possible.
Often including a call to action is interesting, of course. Avoid repeating descriptions. In addition, these must be of the best possible quality and remember: useful .
Meta tags are about making the snippet representative and helping Google relate it to the user’s query.
As we have pointed out in several previous posts, one of the things that Google considers very important when showing this or that result is its usefulness.
Usefulness with respect to the query that you make as a user. How useful that result is for that particular query. The one you write in the search bar.
Well, the meta description tag is essential for this. Since, if in it you make the perfect synthesis of what the user will find in it, you will be useful for many queries related to the theme of your page.
That is, if you have a good and attractive meta description, you will have a much higher chance of users clicking on your link. It simply tells exactly what users are going to find.
As Internet users, we do not like to see that after clicking, the landing page does not have what you expected and what was promised. That creates bounce .
Not only in the emotional sense of the Internet user, but in the most literal terminology of Digital Marketing.
The bounce rate is the percentage of abandonment of a web page when the user leaves it in a few seconds, without interacting with it or consuming content. Enter and exit through the same page. So try to be honest.
In addition, these descriptive words are also used when sharing pages through social networks. So, if your meta description is good, it will have more chances of being shared.
And finally, keep in mind that the maximum number of characters for this tag is limited to 156.
The meta tag that was overused: the meta keyword
In the past, many people abused it to put the keyword and multiple variations. Among others, fraudulent and spam pages. And we know that Google is especially careful with the user. What you want is to be useful and offer quality results from secure websites.
And seeing that many sites made excessive use of keywords ( Stuffing ) with this tag, he has been blunt with this and for years has not taken this goal into consideration. The same goes for Bing. However, Yahoo still considers it.
Meta tags with direct instructions to bots: the robots meta tag
With this meta tag the spiders receive very clear instructions on what to do with the page. Index it or not. Track her or not.
The values that you can write in it are: Index/ Noindex/ Follow / Nofollow and combine them. It is precisely the possibility of combining what makes this label interesting. Especially in front of the robots.txt file with whom it shares similarities.
In HTML it is like this:
“<meta name= “robots” content= “ value1, value2 ”>
First we go with the combinations of the values. They are the following:
Index + Follow. If you don’t do anything with the meta robots tag, it’s the same as giving these instructions. By default it will be like this.
Index + Nofollow. Page indexed but not crawled.
Noindex + Follow. Page not indexed but crawled.
Noindex + Nofollow. The page is neither indexed nor crawled.
Normally when you don’t want a page to be included in the search engine, you use the robots.txt file. You indicate what you want to exclude and that’s it. It will not be crawled or indexed. Spiders won’t get in at all. You will not be in the indices.
However, thanks to the robots tag, you can prevent the page from being indexed (and therefore not displayed) but allow it to be crawled.
That is a great advantage. If it is tracked, the links to other pages are followed and therefore their value will also be transmitted. Page Rank is transferred.
Another smart combination for certain pages is Index/Nofollow when, for example, you have active users on your page generating content. You want to show it, but you don’t want its links to be followed.
More meta tags: meta title or title tag
The title is not actually part of the meta tags themselves. It is an element that is included in the < Head > of the page, yes. But it has another syntax and is not technically considered to be part of the meta tag family.
Rather it is an element that identifies the theme of your page. A piece of code that search engines identify.
On the other hand, according to the W3C this element is mandatory. The W3C would be something similar to the UN of the Internet. It is the World Wide Web Consortium where the standards of the pages are established.
Its objective is to guarantee a universally accessible Web regardless of browser, language, operating system, etc.
The appearance of the title in the <head> is like this:
“<title> Meta tags and their usefulness in SEO Ranking ></title>
The meta title introduces our page. And in an even more synthetic way than the description, it indicates the content to which it names and introduces.
So you also have to take care with this label that will influence users as much or more than the description. It is usually the main piece of information that the user needs to decide for you.
Also include your keyword here (better at the beginning 😉). And we could say almost the same as in the description but in a concentrated way. Be honest, irresistible, do not repeat yourself and get to the point with the essence of your page. Never more than 65 characters, by the way.
meta tags
Other more “discrete” meta tags but also existing and with their small contribution, are the ones that we group as auxiliary meta tags.
These meta tags are author, language, subject, cache control, designer, rating, resource type, revisit after, geography, country, generator, distribution, etc.
There are many SEO professionals who do not take them into consideration. We are in favor of optimizing them since they are understood by Google. And everything that makes it easier for your robots to offer useful results to users is very welcome.
In our SEOraiseUp consultancy, we always optimize all SEO Ranking factors to the maximum detail. In addition, as good strategists, we take into account the global vision of the marketing plan to apply each of the digital strategies instead of doing it in isolation.
Get the most out of the meta tags on your pages and all the SEO factors involved. Learn how to boost your online store or your web 2.0 with our multidisciplinary team and start improving your sales!