Are you building your webpage with the goal of maximizing search results? As you tinker with the different elements of search engine optimization, you may come across the meta concept and wonder what it’s all about.
What is a meta tag in SEO? This small yet important element of your page’s HTML code isn’t actually visible to those reading your content, but it’s pivotal information to a search engine.
As experts who specialize in SEO services in NJ, Peppermonkey handles these kinds of optimization questions daily. Read on to learn more about what meta tags do for search engine optimization so that you can take full advantage of these nifty tools.
Understanding What Meta Tags Do
People who develop sites, even on a limited basis, already know about webpage elements like the meta description. Meta tags work in a similar way, making the page more visible in relevant searches, but they involve adding more information to the page. This information is also hidden when you publish the actual webpage.
So, visitors to your website won’t see these meta tags, but they may see the meta description and title tag featured on their search engine results page. What is a meta tag in SEO? Some information your meta tag delivers to a search engine would include:
- Telling search engines about the information the webpage contains
- Giving search engines a list of things to display in search results
- Instructing web browsers on how to display the page’s information
The meta tag information appears in the head section of the webpage, using Hypertext Markup Language code. However, you do not necessarily have to use HTML or know HTML to create these tags. Software can take care of that based on the information you provide.
How Using Meta Tags Helps Your Webpage
If you’re focusing on creating great content for your webpages, meta tags might seem like an afterthought – but they can be incredibly valuable!
Because of what meta tags do in SEO, any time spent developing them will be well spent. For example, as a primary benefit, meta tags help search engines classify the data on your webpage accurately, which leads to:
- Better search results: High-quality meta tags boost a page’s search engine relevance by accurately describing what people will find on your page.
- Quick information discovery: Meta tags give search engines quick access to key data that refines search results further.
- Emphasis on keywords: Clearly tagged keywords and topics target an exact area, making your page more likely to satisfy those search parameters and rank.
- Rich snippets: Proper meta tag usage can give your webpage a better chance of ranking well in Featured Snippets and People Also Ask-type sections.
- Improved click-through rates: Enticing information in your meta tags will mean people are more likely to click through to your webpage from a search result.
So, what is a meta tag in SEO? Think of tags as a short content summary that search engines can focus on when deciding how to rank your page information.
Certainly, it won’t help to have great content with poor meta tags. Tags give search engines what they need, and the page’s visible content caters to site visitors and customers – so it’s a balancing act.
Different Types of Meta Tags You Can Use
What are meta tags going to achieve in SEO? Which ones are the most important to use? Here’s a breakdown that can help you evaluate your site’s current state.
Title Tags: Function Like a Headline
When you do a search, the clickable headline that appears in the results would be the page’s title tag.
Search engines display limited characters for the title showing up in their results. That’s why they display the title tag instead of the H1 headline you might have splashed across the top of your webpage or post. The ideal title tag convinces a searcher to click, so it needs to accurately describe the content on the page with a natural-sounding title.
Meta Descriptions: Offer a Summary
A meta is not a meta description. Granted, the description is a type of meta tag that serves as a brief summary of the content on the page. However, this will usually appear right under the title tag when your page shows up in a search result.
Descriptions require a limited number of characters (about 160 characters is the standard). This summary will show in search results and must be concise yet persuasive. Search engines don’t necessarily rank your page higher because of the meta description, but if it gets a lot of people to click on your webpage, the search engine will deem your page to be more trustworthy.
Meta Robots: Direct Page Display
Did you know that you can use the meta robots meta tag to tell the search engine whether it should display a particular page in its search results?
What is a meta tag in SEO going to look like with a meta robot? Most of the time, you’ll set these to include the page unless the page isn’t suitable for search engines (such as when it’s under construction). The meta robots tag also tells the search engine whether it should trust the links on a particular webpage.
An SEO services firm like Peppermonkey can help you understand when it’s beneficial to tell the search engine not to trust these links.
Meta Keywords: No Longer Relevant
At one time, any discussion of meta tags would’ve included meta keywords, but today’s search engine algorithms ignore this information. It encouraged webpage builders to keyword stuff, which wasn’t helpful in the world of search engine results.
What Is a Meta Tag in SEO? Ask Peppermonkey For More Tips and Tricks
Do you want to take full advantage of meta tags and optimize your website content? That’s challenging to do on your own if you’re unfamiliar with the territory. Why not let a seasoned team like Peppermonkey help you to start optimizing your site’s pages, strategize adding SEO keywords, and more?
Peppermonkey can enhance your meta title, meta description, meta keywords, header tags, and overall on-page SEO efforts. Schedule your digital marketing consultation today at (732) 576-0171!