What meta tags do in html. Meta HTML tags their purpose and correct filling

Matt Cutts, Head of Anti-Spam at Google, answered a user's question about meta Description tag in his video message.

The user asked: “Is it really necessary that each page of the website contains a unique meta Description tag?».

Matt believes that when the question concerns meta Description tag, then there are really only two viable options. You can either include a unique meta Description tag into every page of the site, or you may not use it at all. However, in the case of using a meta-tag, in no case should the content of the latter be duplicated.

A very easy way to identify duplicate Meta Description Tags is registration and regular check of your web resource in free service Google - "Webmaster Tools". If a duplicate description is found on the site pages, you will be notified of this in the appropriate section of the "Tools".

Generally speaking, Matt stated that it's probably not worth wasting your time writing unique text. meta Description tag for every single page on your site. Matt, for example, doesn't even do it on his own blog.

What Matt strongly recommends is to include meta Description tag to the pages that really matter. For example, home pages or pages that have a high return on investment (ROI).

ROI(Return on Investment) - the rate of return on investment, or the rate of return on investment, that is, the percentage of profitability (if the value is more than 100%) or loss (if the value is less than 100%) of a specific amount of money invested in a particular project .

ROI formula:

ROI= ((B - A) / C) * 100%,

  • cost of a product or service (A)- includes absolutely all costs for the purchase of parts for products, delivery to the warehouse, production of goods, salaries of employees, etc.;
  • income (B)- the final profit from the sale of a product or service;
  • investment amount (C)- the total amount of money that acted as an investment, for example, the budget for contextual advertising .

If you notice that some of your pages have not very good auto-generated snippets in search results then you should consider writing unique Meta Description Tags for such pages as well.

Summing up everything Matt said, we can conclude that you should not only avoid, but also exclude any possibility of a duplicate description in meta Description tags on all pages of your site. Create unique descriptions for some, especially significant pages and let Google automatically create the rest.

You can listen to Matt's full video message below (in English):

Now get to know meta Description tag, which before, and now, continues to play an important role in the search engine optimization of sites. At the same time, you should take into account both current trends (see Matt's recommendations) and the real state of affairs in this issue... And to constantly be aware of new trends, do not forget to look at my site.

Characteristics meta Description tag

HTML Meta Description Tag used when creating a short description of a page, it is used by search engines for indexing, as well as when creating a snippet (annotation) in the search results.

With absence meta Description tag, search engines display in the annotation the first line of a document or an excerpt containing keywords.

Make no mistake when optimizing meta Description tag- this tag is very important. Using this tag correctly, without considering other elements of search engine optimization, will not make you rank # 1 in and of itself, but it will certainly help you get to the top.

You can learn more about the importance of meta tags in search engine optimization of a site in the article "Why you should use search engine optimization of meta tags to promote sites."

As with meta Keywords tag, try not to repeat words and phrases too often to avoid punishment from search engines. Learn more about meta Keywords tag you can in the article "How to use the html meta-tag keywords correctly".

Meta Description tag it is used not only for search engine robots - the text that is enclosed in it appears as a result of the issuance of Internet users by search queries.

Your task is to create such meta Description tag that will be attractive to both robots and humans. Thus, as in the case with Title tag, It is important to meta Description tag was filled with keywords and was attractive to people. Search engine optimization Title tag described in the article "How to correctly compose the html title tag of the title of the site page".

Rules for Meta Description tag more or less the same as for Title tag... However, the content of this tag will generally be larger than Title tag.

If the webmaster did not pay enough attention to filling in the meta tag Description, then the search engine itself forms the so-called. snippet - short description under the link to the page - from fragments of sentences corresponding to the subject of the request, from the entire page.

Description together with Title form a pair of very important meta tags, which determine whether a user will go from search results to your site or contact competitors. Therefore, like Title, you need to register it for each page! Moreover, for each page must be selected different words and phrases included in the named tags.

HTML code of the meta tag Description is located in the following location:




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</i><i>Content</i><i>meta</i><i>- </i><i>tag</i><i>"Title"< /title> </i><br><i>< /head> </i><br><i><body>Main page content< /body> </i><br><i>< /html> </i></p> <p>This is how, for example, it might look like <b>HTML code</b> <b>meta Description tag</b> for the keyword "Tours to Odessa":</p> <p><i><meta name="description " content="Tours to Odessa - We will take care of all the details of the trip, so that you can relax with complete peace of mind"> </i></p> <p>Please note that this description repeats the keyword "Tours to Odessa", and also indicates the obvious benefits: the client will be able to relax without worrying about the details of the trip - you will take care of them.</p> <p>Post your most important <b>keywords and phrases</b> at the beginning of each <b>meta Description tag</b> and try to have <a href="https://obanracer.ru/en/nvl-sql-opisanie-preobrazovaniya-nvl-dlya-razlichnyh-tipov-dannyh-funkcii-exp-n-i-ln-n.html">various descriptions</a> for every page on your site. Using the same descriptions in <b>meta Description tag</b> on every page is even worse than leaving them blank at all.</p> <p>Remember not filled <b>meta Description tag</b> can be a source of serious problems in determining the ranking of your site.</p> <p><b>Meta tag</b> <b>Description</b> should be used on every page of the site, as it remains a useful addition to the unique content of the page itself. <b>Meta tags</b> <b>Description</b> should not repeat the title of the page, but should contain a short description of the topic discussed on the page.</p> <p>Always try to keep the most important ideas that you are trying to convey to users, are at the beginning of the description and contain <b>keywords</b> and also that the description accurately reflects the content of the page.</p> <p>It should be remembered that each page of your site must contain its own unique and accurate <b>meta tag</b> <b>Description</b> since the duplication <b>meta tag</b> <b>Description</b> on site pages has always been rated negatively by search engines.</p> <p>Once your site is fully indexed by Google, you can check for duplicate meta tags in <i>Google Webmaster tools</i>, for example.</p> <p>Although <b>meta tag</b> <b>Description</b> is not one of the main criteria in SEO, you should still pay maximum attention to the quality of the content <b>meta tag</b> <b>Description</b>... You need to write one or two sentences that describe your page in such a way that visitors will want to go to your site, and not to the site of competitors.</p> <p>Well written and unique <b>meta tags</b> <b>Description</b> on every page of your site will help increase the number of clicks on your link.</p> <h2>Google's best practices for using the Meta Description tag</h2> <table width="500" border="0" cellpadding="1"><tr><td><p><i><b>META-TAG Description</b> </i></p> </td> </tr><tr><td bgcolor="#DAF8FE"> <p><b>Come up with a short description for each page</b></p> <p><b>Meta tag <description>gives the search engine a short description of the page content</b>... If the tag <title>we used one phrase, then in <description>we can already write a couple of sentences or a small paragraph. The Google Webmaster Toolkit has <a href="https://obanracer.ru/en/skachat-programmu-dlya-iso-obrazov-luchshie-programmy-dlya-sozdaniya-iso-obraza.html">handy tool</a> for content analysis that will help you with hints if your meta tags <description>too long / short or too often repeated (the same function is available for tags <title>). Just like the tag <title>, meta tag <description>placed inside the tag <head>html pages.</p> <p><b>Meta tag value <description>for search optimization</b></p> <p>Description meta tags are important because <b>Google can use them when creating snippets for your site.</b>... Note that we say “may” because Google may choose other appropriate text from your site for the snippet if it is more relevant to the user's request. Google can also use the description of your site from the Open Directory project if your site is included in it.</p> <p>Adding meta tags <description>Google will also help if the search robot cannot find the appropriate text for the snippet on its own. The central Webmaster Blog has a helpful article on enhancing snippets with meta tags. <description>.</p> <p>The words in the snippet are highlighted in bold if they match <a href="https://obanracer.ru/en/sozdanie-grupp-v-kompanii-po-klyuchevym-zaprosam-gruppirovka-poiskovyh.html">search query</a> user. Thus, the user gets an idea of ​​what is waiting for him on your page.</p> </td> </tr><td><p><i><b>PRACTICAL ADVICE</b> </i></p> </td> <tr><td bgcolor="#DAF8FE"> <p><b>Briefly and accurately describe the content of the page</b></p> <p>Try to make the page description interesting and meaningful for users who will see it as a snippet on the search page. <b>We do not recommend:</b></p> <ul><li>insert into tag <description>description that does not match the content of the page;</li> <li>use general words in the description, for example “this is my page” or “page about postcards”;</li> <li>fill the tag <description>keywords;</li> <li>insert into tag <description>full text of the page.</li> </ul><p><b>Create a unique description for each page</b></p> <p>A unique description of each page is useful both for the search engine and for users: for example, if several pages of your domain appear in the search results (especially when searching with the operator site :). If your site has thousands and millions of pages, then it is often impossible to add descriptions manually. In this case, you can automatically create a description for each page based on its content. <b>We do not recommend:</b></p> </td> </tr></table> <p>What are meta tags? <b>Meta tags are special html tags found in a container <head>and are designed to transfer information about the site to browsers and search engines.</b> For example, when crawling your resource, search robots collect page titles, site descriptions, keywords, author data and other information contained in tags <meta>... Before showing the page of the user's site, the browser does the same in order to understand in what form the site should be displayed for a PC or for a smartphone.</p> <p>In this post, meta tags will be viewed through a lens. And you will be able to find out the basic rules for filling them out, analyzing and checking them using the webmaster's tools.</p> <h3>Types of meta tags:</h3> <ul><li>title ( <i>title</i>) - page titles;</li> <li>description ( <i>discription</i>) - a short description of the page;</li> <li>keywords ( <i>keywards</i>) - keywords;</li> <li>technical meta tags (responsible for the correct display of the page).</li> </ul><h2>How to fill in meta tags correctly</h2> <p>From an SEO point of view, the main meta tags of a site are Title and Description. Therefore, we will consider the correctness of their filling. Again, they must all be located between the tags. <head> </head> and not anywhere else in the code.</p> <p>If your site is made on CMS, then to edit the section with meta tags, you need to install a special plugin or module.</p> <h3>Title</h3> <p>Meta tag <TITLE>is responsible for the page title and is displayed as a line of text on the browser tab.</p> <p>For <a href="https://obanracer.ru/en/gramotnaya-perelinkovka-chto-takoe-gramotnaya-perelinkovka-kak.html">search engine promotion</a> site, it is necessary that the keyword is as close as possible to the beginning of the Title, or is the very first. If the site is being promoted in any region, write the name of the city or region. This is followed by a selling or clarifying additive. Finally, in order to make the title unique, after the straight line we insert the name of the site or company</p> <p><b>For example:</b></p> <ol><li>For a commercial site: <i>«Buy a laptop in Moscow - prices from 19990 r in the online store | site.ru "</i></li> <li>For an information site: <i>«How to properly grow aloe at home | Gardener</i>»</li> </ol><p>In order for the title not to be cut off when displayed in search engine results, the title must be no more than 65 characters long.</p><p> <title>Page title

Description

The Meta Description tag is responsible for describing the essence of the information on the page in several sentences. Usually, a search engine takes information from this tag to form a snippet in search results (most often this is done by Google, less often by Yandex).

The description should also include the direct entry of the keyword (if possible, supplemented with a different word form), talk about the advantages of your proposal, plus serves as a promo for the main content of the page. Let's try to compose page descriptions for the two examples mentioned above.

Examples:

  1. “Buy a laptop in Moscow. Order a laptop at a price of 19,990 rubles in the online store. Delivery is free. 2 year warranty. "
  2. “How to properly grow aloe at home. Gardener magazine shares the secrets of growing an aloe plant at home.»

Length no more than 140 characters. In pure html, it would look like this:

Keywords

Meta Keywords tag is a set of keywords by which a page is promoted. However, today this attribute is already optional and optional, so in the "golden age" of SEO, it was overused and ignored by search engines. If you all decided to fill in keywords, it is better to do this by simply listing words in the initial form without commas:

"Buy a laptop in Moscow order price cost ruble online store catalog delivery guarantee"

Any length, but you should not be too zealous. In html, it is correctly written like this:

You can parse the competitors' meta tags in just a couple of clicks - using a parser.

Technical meta tags

  • Expires - the expiration date of the document.
  • Pragma - a ban on the use of cached data, information must be loaded from the server.
  • Content-Type - content type and encoding.
  • Content-language - language of the page / site.
  • Cache-Control - sets whether the document is cached or not, and if so, how.
  • Robots - responsible for indexing individual pages.
  • document-state - indexing frequency.

The absence of meta tags can negatively affect the display, indexing and ranking of pages.

How to add meta tags to CMS

Most often, various CMS are used to manage content on the site, and some of them require the installation of additional modules and plugins in order to set meta tags. To register meta tags on the CMS you need:


Though Wix and is not a CMS - it is just a constructor, here you can also make a meta description of the site and keywords that contain information about the site. For each page, when you click on three dots, a menu pops up, where you can go to the SEO section and set the necessary parameters.

But if you are serious about promoting your site in search engines, it is better not to use Wix and choose, for example, WordPress.

Checking meta tags online + analysis

To check the meta tags on your own website, you can use the Yandex webmasters panel. To do this, go to the Webmaster "Diagnostics - Site diagnostics". On the page that opens, click "Read". After that, you will be shown a list of pages that have not been filled .

For a comprehensive check or for analyzing meta descriptions from competitors, you can use services that quickly and online show the necessary information.

Here are some of these services:

  • Promoult
  • Serpstat
  • Pixelplus

Conclusion

Meta tags are the first thing a search engine pays attention to. They are the key factors in the ranking of site pages in the search results. You can't leave the meta descriptions empty, on the contrary, you need to be very careful about filling them in and now you know how to do it.

Description

HTML tag is an empty element and is positioned inside an element ... It is used to provide additional information(metadata) about an HTML document used by browsers and search engines.

Usually there are several elements on one page. , but with various attributes that are used for example to define the page description, keywords, indicate the author of the document, last change, specifying the encoding of the HTML document, etc.

Note: the contents of the elements does not appear on the web page.

Attributes

charset: Specifies the character encoding for the current HTML document. The most commonly used encoding is UTF-8.

Tag with charset attribute is best placed as first child inside element ... For the text on the page to be displayed correctly, the encoding specified in the attribute value must match the encoding of the document itself. content: Contains arbitrary text that specifies the value associated with the http-equiv or name attribute, depending on their value. http-equiv: Controls browser actions on a given web page (equivalent to HTTP headers). When rendering the page, the browser will follow the instructions given in the attribute.

  • default-style: indicates the preferred style for use on the page. The content attribute must contain the element ID which refers to the table CSS styles, or element id