Meta Tags Optimization - What is Meta Tag?
The META tag in html is not a required tag when you are creating your web pages, many pages do not use the label to all, and I must confess that I have not used my start page, though I do on this page in demo mode. In short, the meta tag is used by search engines that allow them to more accurately list your site indices. Sometimes.
If you simply produce your home page and register the URL with a search engine, or a series of search engines, their spider (eventually) toddler along to index your site. Now, each of the search engines does this slightly differently. Altavista, for example, grab everything in the document and the index, but only display the first 250 characters in your description. Therefore, if your site included say, 'Thanks to :....' right at the beginning, this is what Altavista displayed in its description, and not give the viewer an idea of what your site actually covered. Of course, not all search engines work this way, I would suggest that ferret around a bit to see exactly how the popular engines work, and certainly the major two or three, like Altavista, Lycos, Yahoo, Infoseek and Excite. Therefore it makes sense to ensure that your first paragraph is carefully written to ensure that it accurately reflects what is referred to your site.
However, you may be able to exercise a degree of control over how your site is indexed by using the meta tag. (However I must point out that not all search engines use this tag - Altavista ago, Excite, but not, for example. It is not a cure all, therefore, all-but you do not miss to put the label, and which may work well in some cases.
The keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag don't affect your page's ranking in the search engines (for the most part), but this tag can still come in handy in your overall SEO campaigns. |