PC Stuff - HTML - Meta Tags

HTML: Meta tags

Before we start on Meta tags I would like to say that there are literally dozens of tags that compose meta tags. A search engine can find your site without them, but you stand a far greater chance of being visited if you include the tags. Not all of the tags are necessary, but read the descriptions and decide if you want the tags inserted into your page. As this is a major part of web pages this page has been written and presented in more depth and with more descriptions than other HTML help documents on this site.

This tag is used to help search engines find and categorize your site while also providing additional information.
<Meta> is used to start the Meta command while </Meta> ends it (although other text can also be inserted) when inserted into the <Head> section.

This simply displays your page title in the status bar of the browser. The <Title> tag can also be used for this, but will not display a title when search engines list your page.

This provides a description of your web site, which search engines display with your title.

This is what search engines look for when reading Meta tags. All of the keywords describe your site and are what decide if you are displayed by the words that the search has been set. Do not repeat words more than seven times or you will not be included in searches due to spamming, although some search engines will not allow you to use words more than three times. Use a maximum of 2000 characters, or with some search engines 1400. Separate all keywords or phrases by commas.

This simply provides information about you, so people know who created the site and who to contact.

This simply provides information about you, so people know who created the site and who to contact.

This puts an expiry data on your site, used if you site is only for a specific time time of a certain year (i.e. Will England beat Germany in 2000?). Leave this blank if you want your site to remain active permanently (or until you remove it). Insert any time period in this tag from which it should be removed from search engines from the date it is submitted, like Content="2 days">. Syntax such as "3 weeks" or "5 years" are also understood.

This provides the language of your site to search engines, for if (like with AltaVista) if only English sites are searched. Insert any language in its own language in this tag, like Content="Deutsch">.

This provides the type of internet file of your page to search engines, for if (like with AltaVista) if only music files or document files are searched. Insert any type in this tag, like Content="Music">.

This provides the certificate of your site to search engines, for if your site contains scenes of sex or nudity then if parent guards are turned on then kids cannot see the mature material and adult search search engines will be able to see your site. This provides people with information about what age group the site is for. Insert any certificate in this tag as shown below:

"General"    Universal
"PG"            Parental guidance
"12"             12
"15"             15
"Adult"         18/21

This provides the instructions for search engine robots. Insert any instruction in this tag as shown below:

"Nofollow"        This tells the robot to only list the page that it has found in the search database.
"Index,follow"   This tells the robot to list all of the pages in the web site from the location of the index (if index is placed in http://abc/indexes/index.htm, then it will only search the contents of the indexes folder and not the abc folder).
"Follow"            This tells the robot to not list the index page, but list all other pages in the site (not reccommended unless you insert "Description" and "Keywords" parts of Meta tags in every page on your site.

This provides the time until the search engine robot should visit your site again. Only put in the time span for when you regularly update your site, like if you update it once every week then insert Content="1 week". Syntax such as "1 year" is also understood.

That is all of the information on Meta tags that you will need, but if you want search engine recognition tips then please read the guide for more in depth info. The below Meta tag is used if you want to create special effects on your web page when you start it up. However, it can be incredibly annoying if you leave it at the default four seconds. Two is more than enough.

This is used for the special effect when the page is opened.

This is used for the special effect when the page is closed. Below is a list of all of the special effects that can be inserted into you pages.

"0"    Box in
"1"    Box out
"2"    Circle in
"3"    Circle out
"4"    Wipe up
"5"    Wipe down
"6"    Wipe right
"7"    Wipe left
"8"    Vertical blinds
"9"    Horizontal blinds
"10" Checkerboard across
"11" Checkerboard down
"12" Random dissolve
"13" Split vertical in
"14" Split vertical out
"15" Split horizontal in
"16" Split horizontal out
"17" Strips left down
"18" Strips left up
"19" Strips right down
"20" Strips right up
"21" Random bars horizontal
"22" Random bars vertical
"23" Random