Meta tags are used to provide structured data about data. In the context of search engine optimisation (SEO), people normally tend to think of the meta description and meta keyword tags - HTML codes, invisible to the browser, that are inserted into the header on a web page after the title tag. Information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. They take a variety of forms and serve a range of purposes, for example telling a browser what 'character set' to use or a robot whether to index the page information or not, or even how a web page rates itself in terms of adult content.
Other meta tags, including the meta http-equiv tag, meta refresh tag, the meta robots tag, the meta copyright tag, and the meta author tag can all be used to inform and instruct browsers and search engine spiders.
Informed opinion on the value of meta tags is sparse, patchy and often contradictory. Many SEO companies and marketers are unsure as to what meta tags are actually good for, especially with so many people saying meta tags are useless and not to add them.
The original role of meta tags was to offer a consistent method of providing meta document data to user agents, especially search engines. Originally the meta keywords tag was very useful in helping pages to win on search engines, but it wasn't long before the meta description and meta keyword tags (simplistic determinants of relevance, to be fair) were virtually spammed to death.
The first not so subtle SEO tricks involved the practice of keyword stuffing. SEO developers would simply place as many incidents of keywords (both visible and invisible) on a page in the hope that a spider would find them. Even today it's not hard to find meta tags stuffed with nonsense, multiple keywords and phrases.
Danny Sullivan pronounced as far back as 2002 that the keyword meta tag had already been dead for 5 years.
Though it was reported that Google had never even added the keyword meta tag support as part of it's overall war on spam, on November 16th 2003, Google introduced the most comprehensive algorithm shift in its history. Prior to this date, most search engines were primarily interested in 'on-page' issues such as keyword density and meta tag information. Google's algorithm was already more sophisticated and had acted primarily on site content and link popularity. Since the Florida update in 2003, Google has looked much deeper into linguistics, link filtering and more in-depth behavioural and historical analysis. Many of these changes have prompted SEO consultants and developers to adjust their tactics and techniques.
The biggest accomplishment of Florida was that it stood as the first major step that any of the major search engines had taken towards distancing their search returns from SEO spam. The fact that Google's search results are generally the hardest search results for the average web master to manipulate bears testament to their success. Florida raised the bar and with it set the scene for a more ethical, user-centric optimisation industry and search environment. Website owners and SEO experts are now forced to confront genuine user needs and real content relevance.
Clearly the popularity of meta tags took a major hit. To be fair though, such was the level of abuse that to a degree Black Hat SEO was killing the goose that laid the golden search egg, and unless effective relevance measures were taken the whole industry could have imploded under the sheer weight of spam search results. From being near the top of every search engine optimiser's 'to do' list, meta tags fell off the professional SEO radar. Now, however, progressive SEO companies like SEO Consult are once again starting to look more closely at some of the meta tags and how to deploy them as part of their overall effective SEO solutions.
Interestingly Google, Yahoo! & Microsoft have all added new meta tags over the last year that allow web masters to customize how their sites are displayed in the search results, and of course the description meta tag and the title tag (which isn't actually a meta tag at all) are both SEO critical.
The first information that search engine spiders and most human visitors see is the page title. By sharing primary topical information to crawlers and users, the title of a web document is a potent weapon used by SEOs to address specific keyword targets and drive traffic.
Each page in a website should have a unique title. As pages in the website gets more specific, so to should the titles of those pages.
Search engines use titles to gauge the topical intent of individual pages in a website, as do human search engine users. It makes sense to give both users the information they need to make the decisions you want them to. The meta description tag can have a decisive impact on rankings and selection.
Search engines use the meta description to help confirm the topicality of web pages. Most notably, Google now sometimes applies the description in short paragraphs found under the 'Title' in search engine results. When a search engine user sees a well-written meta description, they're more inclined to visit the site. Each page should have a unique description tag.
The meta robots tag, in addition to sculpting your PageRank by reducing potentially damaging page duplication and excluding pointless crawls, add weight to the pages the spider indexes. It is useful for excluding certain pages from being indexed and for preventing competitors being alerted to specific site directories.
The relatively new NOODP tag - if your site is listed in the DMOZ directory with a less than perfect description, the ODP tag will inform MSN, Google and Yahoo! that you prefer that description not to be used for your overview.
Similarly, Yahoo! also allows the NOYDIR meta tag, which tells Yahoo! not to use your Yahoo! Directory description as the snippet in Yahoo! search results.
Preventing a cache copy being taken is another use for meta tags though this can be a signal of spam, since most spammers prefer you to see what they serve you and not what they actually served up to Google (or Yahoo! or MSN) to get there.
In the final analysis, you can omit all meta tags and still rank well in the major search engines, though you may as well though integrate the potential benefits they do offer within your SEO campaign.
For information on meta tags and SEO campaigns that include as standard light, tight code, robust structures, high quality topical content and inbound links from authoritative sites, contact SEO Consult today.
