Understanding Meta Tags

META tags allow you to include special information about a Web page that is normally invisible to visitors but it can be detected by browsers and search engines

There are many META tags available. In this section, I'll explain the two main Types of META tags. The HTTP-EQUIV Attributes and the NAME Attributes and give you some examples.

In the next section I'll discuss the two most important and most used meta tags, the Keyword tag and the Description tag. Together, these two tags provide a framework for search engines to know how to list your site and using them properly will help your search engine rankings

Meta Tag Usage

META tags are similar to HTML tags, except that they must be placed between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags, which is before the <BODY> tag. On framed pages, you should include the Meta tags on the frameset page and the framed pages.

Meta tags are a way for you to define your Web page and Website to the outside world.

With them, you can declare the title, keywords and description of a Web page, which helps your placement in search engines. In addition, there are many other pieces of useful information you can specify, including: who owns the copyright, how often the page is to be visited by search engines and many others.

The Two Main Types of Meta Tags: HTTP-EQUIV Attributes and NAME Attributes

1. HTTP-EQUIV Attributes
Meta tags with the HTTP-EQUIV attribute are equivalent to HTTP headers.

When you click on a hyperlink which begins with http:// you are asking that a page be transferred to your browser using the http protocol. Here's what happens:

You request a page by clicking on the URL
The web server makes sure the page exists
It sends back an http header block which contains information about the page
It sends the page itself.

What HTTP-EQUIV Meta tags do is define additional information to be sent to the browser in the http header. This gives the Website creator additional control over this data. Some servers may actually generate HTTP headers from the HTML tags (as suggested by HTML 3.2 specification) so you don't want invent new HTTP-EQUIV tags unless you understand the HTTP specification. Use NAME tags instead.

Here are some examples of HTTP-EQUIV Meta tags:

2. NAME Attributes
Meta tags with the NAME attribute are used to define information which is to be referenced outside of the document. Meta tags with the NAME attribute are used to define information which is to be referenced outside of the document. This includes data passed to search engines and directories, spiders and other entities. These tags are used for other types which do not correspond to HTTP headers. But sometimes the distinction between the two kinds of tags can be somewhat blurred.

Here are some examples of NAME tags:

There are Websites that will tell you much more about META tags and how they are used. Use a search engine if you are interested and just enter "Meta tags".

Here's one Website that has some good META tag information:
A Dictionary of HTML META Tags (vancouver-webpages.com/META/)

In the next section I'll talk about the Keyword and Description tags and how their proper use can give your Web pages better Search Engine Rankings and bring more visitors to your Site.