If you are new to SEO and want to know about meta tags then here is my answer to your question. Meta tags are HTML tags that are added between the opening and closing head tags of an HTML document, sounds more technical lingo? (if you know the basics of HTML then please skip to the next paragraph) OK, let me simplify, check out the below sample HTML document – it has 2 important components “head” and “body” and in simple terms head indicated the label of a particular document, some kinda sign posting stuff. Body refers to the actual content on that particular page – the real meat ok? Now both these tags have an open tag and close tag.
Eg: <head> – open tag
</head> – close tag
- HTML sample
If you want to see a live example then just right click on a webpage (firefox browser) and then select “view page source” then you can see the HTML tags used for that particular page.
Ok now back to Meta tags! Meta tags are vital part of the on-page SEO effort, it doesn’t promise to magically rank you on top and bring huge traffic but it is one of those basic component of any on-page SEO activity. Here is how it looks and as pointed out earlier its added between the opening and closing of the head tag
<head>
<title>Meta title goes here</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Meta description goes here”>
<meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html;charset=UTF-8″>
</head>
Components of Meta tags
Meta title: This is ideally the title of the page content
For this page I will enter the title as <title>Meta tags tutorial</tutorial>
Length – Meta title should be of maximum 70 characters length
Tip – Always position the prime keyword you want to rank for to the left, i.e., to the beginning of the Meta title
Meta Description: A brief description about the page content
For this page I will enter the description as
<meta name=”description” content=”The importance of Meta tags in search engine optimization and step by step explanation of all the components of meta tags”>
Length – Meta description should be of maximum 155 characters length
Tip – don’t repeat the Meta title in the description, the meta description should be written like an ad copy. The Meta description appears on the SERP pages and the more attractive it is better is the chance of a user clicking on your web link. A good meta description can help increase the SERP click through rate.
Meta Keywords – keywords that best describe the page content are listed here separated by a comma.
For this page I will enter the keywords as
<meta name=”keywords” content=”Meta element, Web search engine, search engine results page”>
Length – 3 – 4 keywords max.
Tip – Modern SEO practices doesn’t give much importance to Meta keywords attribute, but if at all you want to use it, keep it short and don’t stuff keywords with all possible synonyms.
Conclusion: Meta tags are vital components of on-page optimization practice and an essential tool to communicate to search engines and help them understand what content you have to offer for the user. Hope I kept this post simple with less technical jargons; do let me know your thoughts about meta tags in the comments section. Bye for now will see you with another tutorial soon 
Image courtesy: wphocasi
