What are Google Meta Tags?
Review recommended Meta Content Type.
Should you use the Meta Author tag?
Meta Tags Explained: The Myths,
The Truths
by Jerry West
Updated April 29, 2008
Meta tags are often misunderstood and incorrectly
used on the Internet. This document briefly explains meta tags, breaks down every tag we know about
and recommends whether or not to use each tag
on your site. So what are
meta tags? A meta tag is a snippet of informational code (usually) located between
the <HEAD> </HEAD>
tags in an HTML document.
Meta Tags have
two known styles, or attributes:
1. <META HTTP-EQUIV="name" CONTENT="content">
2. <META NAME="name" CONTENT="content">
Meta tags were first created in the mid-'90s to make
sense of the growing number of web pages, but in the late '90s something happened.
Unethical webmasters, most notably those who ran adult
websites, began abusing the Keyword Meta Tag. They would place keywords unrelated
to their site in their meta tag, which caused their pornographic
websites to appear in unrelated search results for topics like "Smithsonian."
One by one, the major engines
discontinued the use of meta tags as part of their
main criteria. Google ignored meta tags altogether, and now only indexes Google Meta Tags. There are, however, several search engines that still read meta tags in some way.
Follow the links below to read about each
Meta Tag:
Recommended Tags
Meta Content Language (non-US English ONLY)
Meta Content Type
Meta Description
Meta
Language (non-US English ONLY)
Optional Tags
Meta Abstract
Meta Author
Meta Copyright
Meta Designer
Meta Google
Meta Keywords
Meta MSN (No ODP)
Meta Title
Not Recommended Tags
Meta Content Script Type
Meta Content Style Type
Meta Distribution
Meta Expires
Meta Generator
Meta MS Smart Tags
Meta Pragma No-Cache
Meta Publisher
Meta Rating
Meta Refresh
Meta Reply-To
Meta Resource Type
Meta Revisit After
Meta Robots
Meta Set Cookie
Meta Subject
Meta VW96.ObjectType
Meta
Abstract: To give a short summary of the description.
Used primarily with academic papers.
Normally, the content of this tag will be 10 words or less.
Example: <META NAME="Abstract" CONTENT="Short
description of page">
Recommendation: Optional. Will not assist you with the
major search engines. If, however, your content is highly
specialized, the use of this tag will allow search engines in your field of expertise
to index your site properly. According to testing, Google, Yahoo! and MSN do not use this tag as part of their algorithm.
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Meta
Author: To declare the author of the document.
This meta tag reference's the name of the person who
created the HTML or XML document being viewed. If you use this tag, it is recommended
to use the author's first and last name, but it is not recommended to include the author's e-mail address due to a heavy increase in Spam.
If the author wishes to be contacted, it is recommended to include a contact form on the HTML page.
Example: <META NAME="Author" CONTENT="George
Costanza, gcostanza@vandalayindustries.com">
Recommendation: Optional. If you
have many individuals contributing to the content of
your site, use this tag to help track the author. The tag is not indexed by Google, Yahoo! or MSN, so it will not help you in search engine ranking, but it is recognized as part of the "Meta Tag Standard."
Read more on Meta Author
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Meta
Content Language: To declare the natural language of the document. Also known as "Meta Name Language".
Used by robots
to categorize by language.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language"
CONTENT="en-GB">
Recommendation: Use only if your webpage is written in non-US English. While we have not tested this tag, we have had reports from our members that it helps non-US English sites get properly catalogued by search engines.
Read more on Meta Content.
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Meta
Content Script Type: To specify the default
scripting language of the document.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Script-Type"
CONTENT="text/javascript">
Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines do
not need this tag to detect scripts, they can do so
on their own. Browsers do not use this tag either, as they have other detection methods in place.
Read more on Meta Content.
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Meta
Content Style Type: To specify the default Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language for the document.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type"
CONTENT="text/css">
Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines do
not need to know the style sheet. Web browsers also do not look to the meta tags for style sheet information.
Read more on Meta Content.
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Meta
Content Type: To declare the character set.
It is now recommended to always use this tag
even if you use a DTD declaration above the Header.
Failure to do so may cause display problems where, for
instance, the document uses UTF-8 punctuation characters
but is displayed in ISO or ASCII charsets. There are
other benefits, but you will need to be a subscriber
to our SEO Revolution
Newsletter (paid membership) to get the full scoop of what this tag
can do for your site.
Example: <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
Recommendation: Always use this tag along with the DTD
declaration format from the World
Wide Web Consortium. Failure to do so may cause display problems. For example, this tag helps properly display the page if the document uses UTF-8 punctuation characters
but is displayed in ISO or ASCII charsets. There are
many benefits to using the Meta Content Tag. To get the full scoop, become a paid member and subscribe to our SEO Revolution
Newsletter.
Read more on Meta Content Type.
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Meta
Copyright: To include copyright, trademark, patent or other information pertaining to intellectual property.
Example:<meta name="copyright" content="©
2007">
Recommendation: Not required. Please know that this tag will not protect your site's content or your intellectual property.
Consult your attorney to ensure you are protected properly.
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Meta
Description: To give a description of the document.
This tag consists of a short, plain language description
of the document, usually 20-25 words or less. Search
engines that support this tag will use the information
to publish on their search results page, normally below
the Title of your site.
Example: <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Citrus
fruit wholesaler.">
Recommendation: Always use this tag. Make your meta description as
compelling as you can, as your description often is
the difference between getting your listing clicked
in the search results. This tag is particularly important
if your document has very little text, is a frameset,
or has extensive scripts at the top.
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Meta
Designer: To declare the designer of the
website.
Example: <META NAME="Designer" CONTENT="Art
Vandaley">
Recommendation: Optional. Usually this tag is used by web designers as advertising or to catch people who hijack their designs. It should be understood that this tag is not supported
by any search engine.
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Meta
Distribution: To declare the distribution of your web content.
There are three classifications
of distribution: Global (the entire
web), Local (reserved for the local IP block of your
site), and IU (Internal Use, not for public distribution).
Example: <META NAME="Distribution" CONTENT="Global">
Recommendation: Do not use. If you want to restricted
distribution, use the robots.txt tag or your HTAccess file.
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Meta
Expires: To declare the date and time after which the web
document should be considered expired.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="expires" CONTENT="Wed,
26 Feb 2004 08:21:57 GMT">
Recommendation: Do not use. While this is good
in concept, it is impractical for search engines and not only do search engines not read the tag, but according to my testing, browsers ignore it too. Looking to stop Google from caching your site? Even if you use this tag Google will cache your page. This tag is worthless, don't bother with it.
Read more on Meta Expires Tag.
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Meta
Generator: To declare the name and version number
of the publishing tool used to create the page.
Could
be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
Example: <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="FrontPage
4.0">
Recommendation: Do not use. If you have these
tags, delete them if you can. They serve no purpose for your pages.
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Meta
Google: The following options are exclusively
for use with Google:
googlebot: noarchive - do not allow Google to
display cached content
googlebot: nosnippet - do not allow Google to
display excerpt or cached content
googlebot: noindex - similar to the robots meta
element
googlebot: nofollow - do not allow Google to pass any PageRank or link popularity to the link served.
Recommendation: Optional. You generally do not need to
use these tags unless you want Google to do something
specific with your site. The Google Meta Tag is one of the few meta tags Google will read, index and obey.
Read More on Google Meta Tags .
For more info straight from Google, see Google's Remove
Page.
Also referenced: meta tags google
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Meta
Language: To declare the language used
on the website.
Webmasters who wish to declare the primary language of the webpage can use this meta tag.
Example: <META NAME="Language" CONTENT="english">
Recommendation: Use only for sites in non-US English languages. No testing has been done in other languages to verify if this meta tag does indeed work.
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Meta
Keywords: To list keywords the define the content of your site.
Keywords are used by search engines
to properly index your site in addition to words from the
title, document body and other areas. This tag is typically used for synonyms
and alternates of title words.
Example: <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="oranges,
lemons, limes">
Recommendation: Use with caution. Make sure to
only use keywords that are relevant to your site. Search
engines are known to penalize or blacklist your site
for abuse. This tag also exposes
your keywords to your competitors. Five hours of keyword research can be hijacked within just a few minutes by your competitor.
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Meta
MS Smart Tags: Smart Tags were part of a beta
test of Internet Explorer that was removed due to negative
press and feedback from users.
In short, Microsoft would
sell keyword phrases, then Smart Tags would allow for
those keywords to be highlighted on web pages that
would take the user to the advertiser's site. This would
mean your site could advertise your competitor's
site without your consent.
Example: <META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing"
CONTENT="TRUE">
Recommendation: Do not use. Microsoft discontinued
this technology. If you are working with an SEO firm that demands to insert these tags, quickly find a new SEO company.
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Meta MSN (No ODP): To use your description in the MSN Search results instead of the description used in DMOZ.
Example: <META Name="msnbot" CONTENT="NOODP">
Recommendation: Optional. If you are unhappy with the description from DMOZ, which most webmasters are, use this tag. While this is only good for MSNBot, you can sub "ROBOTS" for "MSNBOT" in the tag to be valid for all bots. As of right now, however, MSN is the only engine using descriptions straight from DMOZ.
Note: Using this tag will not remove the DMOZ listing immediately. It can take up to four weeks.
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Meta
Pragma No Cache: Used to prevent visitors from seeing a cached version of a specific page. This tag forces the browser to pull information from the server each time the page is viewed.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
Recommendation: This tag has no affect on search engines and is mainly implemented with the intent to help users. For example: If you have a site that changes on a daily basis, this tag would ensure that the visitor sees the most recent version of the page.
However, because you are pulling information from the server each time a visitor views the page, the load time will be affected as well as incurring increased server activity.
Google has stated: "The http-equiv values pragma and expires are attempts at bypassing caches without having to set the HTTP headers correctly. These are probably unnecessary uses; any scenario where there is a legitimate reason to limit caching, the author is going to have enough control over the server to send the appropriate headers. In addition, the meta tags can't be considered reliable (e.g. proxies and transparent caches aren't going to honor them)."
In my opinion, it is better to set the HTTP headers correctly. To learn how to do this, view our article (must be an All Access Member of the SEO Revolution).
Note: The above also applies to the Meta Expires Tag.
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Meta
Publisher: To declare the name and version number
of the publishing tool used to create the page.
This is the same as the Meta
Generator tag. Could
be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
Example: <META NAME="Publisher" CONTENT="FrontPage
4.0">
Recommendation:Do not use. If you have these
tags, delete them if you can. They serve no purpose for your pages.
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Meta
Rating: To display a content rating similar to the movie rating system (i.e. PG-13).
Example: There is not a set form of this tag, nor is there any official statement from the W3C. Some sites recommend using this tag, however, it is just fictitious as the governing body of HTML has no reference to it, and according to our testing, has no merit.
Recommendation: Do not use. The fact that there is not a set form of this tag suggests you would be better off getting
a rating from the International
Content Rating Association.
Read more on Meta Rating Tag Explained.
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Meta
Refresh: To specify a delay in seconds before
the browser automatically reloads the document or URL
specified.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.domain.com/page.html">
Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines
can detect the use of this tag and they consider it Spam. Penalty is either ignoring the page or banning
your site completely from the index. You should use a 301 or 302 redirect instead. To get more information on how to do redirects properly, subscribe to our paid membership and check out the SEO Revolution Newsletter archive.
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Meta
Reply To: To harvest e-mail addresses.
This is a spammers tag. The tag picks up your e-mail address, then hits you fast and hard with
offers a plenty.
Example: <meta name="reply-to" content="your.email@address.com" />
Recommendation: Do not use.
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Meta
Resource Type: To declare the resource
type of the page.
Example: <META name="resource-type" content="document">
Recommendation: Do not use. Use the DTD
Declaration instead.
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Meta
Revisit After: The purpose of this tag is to inform search engines
when to come back and index your site again.
It has
been stated that this tag will boost your site's rankings
with search engines that credit fresh pages. This information is false and has no basis.
Example: <META NAME="Revisit-After" CONTENT="30
days Days">
Recommendation: Do not use. Search engines do not obey this tag. Search engines come back to index your site on their schedule, not when you tell them to.
Read more on Meta Revisit After
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Meta
Robots: To control search engine robots on a
per-page basis.
Tell Robots they may traverse the page, but not index it.
Example: <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">
Recommendation: Do not use. This tag is often ignored by search engines. If you need to control
the search engine robots, use a robots.txt file or modify your HTAccess file instead.
Many people are concerned that if a bot comes to their site through a subpage and not their home page, the robots.txt file will not be read. This is false. The robots.txt is read each time a good bot comes to a new domain. You can verify this through your web logs.
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Meta
Set Cookie: To set a cookie in the user's web browser.
If you use
an expiration date, the cookie is considered permanent
and will be saved to disk (until it expires), otherwise
it will be considered valid only for the current session
and will be erased upon closing the Web browser.
Example: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Set-Cookie" CONTENT="cookievalue=xxx;expires=Wednesday,
21-Oct-98 16:14:21 GMT; path=/">
Recommendation: Do not use. While this meta tag
was used years ago to set cookies, cookies can
now be set and customized very easily. If you need assistance
with cookies, our programming staff can assist you for
a nominal fee.
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Meta
Subject: To declare the subject of the web site.
Example: <META NAME="Subject" CONTENT="Web
Page Subject">
Recommendation: Do not use. This tag is not supported
by any third party agent, including browsers and search engines.
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Meta
Title: To declare the title of the page.
This tag would normally have the same
title as contained in the <TITLE></TITLE>
tag.
Example: <META NAME="Title" CONTENT="Page
Title Here">
Recommendation: Use with caution. According to testing, Yahoo! and MSN index this tag, but its effect on the algorithm is unknown due to inconsistent test results.
Read more on the Meta Title.
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Meta
VW96.ObjectType: To define the purpose of specific pages.
Based on an early version
of the Dublin
Core report, using a defined schema of document
types such as FAQ, HOW TO, etc.
Recommendation: Do not use. These meta tags are
not supported by any search engine or major browser.
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© 2003-2007, WebMarketingNow.com
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 in gaining
an upper-hand over their competition. Visit Web
Marketing Now for the latest in tested and proven marketing tips.
The above article can be reproduced
on your site or e-zine as long as the signature file
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