Search Engine Optimization Uncovered
Meta Expires Tag Explained
by Jerry West
Posted: February 28, 2008

Note: If you are looking for a comprehensive list of Meta Tags and how to use them properly in your pages, please see my comprehensive article: Meta Tags Explained.

Meta Expires: Defines the expiration date and time of the document being indexed. It is said to be helpful if you are running a limited time event/offer or if there is a preset date when your document will no longer be valid. Once the date listed is reached, the search engines are supposed to delete your webpage from their database.

The expires tag is commonly used in conjunction with the Revisit After Tag as a means to get search engines to come back to your website every few days.

Example:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="expires" CONTENT="Wed, 26 Feb 2004 08:21:57 GMT">

Note: Time zone must be stated in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) not EST, PST or other.

Use this tag to expire content immediately :

<META HTTP-EQUIV="expires"CONTENT="0">

Using the above tag is also said to disable caching so that the search engine will load a new copy of the site from the server everytime an end user visits the site.

Recommendation: Do not use. Looking to stop Google from caching your site? This won't work. While the concept is good, it is impractical for the search engines. Even if you use this tag Google will cache your page. And according to my testing both search engines and browsers ignore this tag completely and so should you. This tag is worthless.

To get Google to stop caching your page, use the code below:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="CACHE-CONTROL" CONTENT="NO-CACHE">

Note: The above belongs with your other meta tags at the top of your page.

Back to Meta Tags Explained & Uncovered.

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Jerry West is the Director of Internet Marketing for Web Marketing Now. He has been consulting on the web since 1996 and has assisted hundreds of companies gain an upper-hand over their competition. Visit Web Marketing Now for the latest in marketing tips that are tested and proven.

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