Meta Tags: Their Types and Importance While Doing SEO

Meta Tags

Websites that lack meta tags are lost out on a key opportunity to rank in search results. You can utilize this content to learn about types of meta tags while doing SEO.

What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML tags that narrate your page content to search engines and website viewers. The meta tags view only in the page’s code. And anyone can test them through a website’s source code.

And also meta tags are key only because they tell search engines what a page is about. Think of them as the first appearance for all search engines.

In this article, I’ll discuss the most important types of meta tags for SEO you to focus on. You can also utilize tools such as SEMrush(link is external) (Particularly the SEMrush Audit Tool(link is external)and Screaming Frog(link is external) to check the meta tags on any site.

Their Different Types:

Title Tag

Firstly the title tag is the HTML element that shows what your web page is about. Title tags are very important for SEO and visitors because they appear in the search engine results page (SERP) and also in browser tabs.

The title element supports every browser including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Besides here are some good pointers for writing a title tag:

Keep your title tag under 60 characters only if possible.
Add words that specify what your content is about, such as “How to,” “Review,” “Best,” “Tips,” “Top,” “Find,” or might be “Buy”.
Use long-tail keywords, or keywords with 4+ words, such as mainly “is my site mobile-friendly” or “how to make a website mobile-friendly”.
Plus add numbers to your title, such as “9 HTML Tags That Will increase SEO”.
Also, start your title tag with your main targeted keyword.
Hence also include a unique title tag on every page.

Meta Description

A meta description is an HTML element that adds up the content on your web page. Search engines practically show the meta description in search results below your title tag.

Here’s an instance example of the meta description that always appearing on a search results page:

This is how you’d code a meta description like the one above mentioned:

<head>

</head>.

Google does not always use the meta description as a ranking signal. However, it still has a great effect on your page’s click-through rate (CTR) because it appears in search results. Hence it informs users what your page is about.

And here’s how to write a good description tag:

Firstly do not always add duplicate meta descriptions.
Secondly add a clear call to action (CTA) in your descriptions like “apply today,” “check out ____,” or one of these 100 CTA phrases(link is external).
Add your targeted keywords in descriptions.
Add any discounts or offers you have.

Hence that way, you’ll have a compelling description tag.

Canonical Tag

Firstly in this, it is an HTML link tag with the attribute “rel=canonical.”

It’s used to indicate that there are other later versions of this webpage. By using the canonical tag in the code, your website tells search engines that this URL is the main page.

Alternative Text Tag

Firstly in this Search engines can’t always read images, which are the best part of several websites. Alternative text (alt-text) is a path around that issue.

And you need to add proper alt text to images, such as the one below so that search engines know how to implement them.

That way, you can include addressing graphics on your website without damaging your SEO.

Here are some more tips for your alt text tags:

Always utilize a proper description, and never stuff your keyword in this tag.
Make to utilize informative filenames.
And always Be clear and to the point.
Create an image sitemap.
Utilize 50-55 characters (up to 16 words) in the alt text.
Also, use an average or small file size for faster page loading speed – just don’t compromise the image’s resolution.

Robots Meta Tag

The robots meta tag says that search engines are either index or non-index your web page.

This tag has four main values for the search engine crawlers:

FOLLOW –This will follow all the links on that webpage.
INDEX –This will index the whole webpage.
NOFOLLOW – This search engine crawler will NOT follow the page and any links on that webpage.
NOINDEX – This will NOT index that webpage.

Open Graph Meta Tags and also open Twitter Cards

Firstly to be clear these tags make social media syncing easier.

And also open graph meta tags to result in integration between Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and your website.

Here is a there is an easy sample of how Open Graph tags look like in standard HTML:

And also twitter cards function in a similar way to Open Graph, except for Twitter.

Here is a easy sample of How Twitter card view like in standard HTML:

Header Tags

Firstly in these tags, you can utilize these header tags to change font sizes and signify information held on a page.

The heading elements run from H1 to H6. H1 is the largest and very important level, and H6 is the smaller and lesser importance.

If in case you mark the text with an H1 tag, you recognize to search engines that it’s the most important text on that particular page.

Responsive Design Meta Tag

Finally, an important meta tag is the responsive design meta tag, which is also known as the viewport meta element.

These tags allow web designers to configure how a page measures and displays on any device.

In the first image, the text is hard to read, and the image doesn’t measure well. In the second, both the text and the image always fit the dimensions of the screen.

You can hence find the viewport element in the head section of your web page.

Conclusion

Firstly analyzing the use of meta tags is a great start to improving on-page SEO. Secondly, the 8 meta tags in this content are ones that will help you rank better, as long as you utilize them correctly. Hence the more you utilize meta tags to specify, the more value you’ll provide. Finally, this content gives you in detail on Types of meta tags while doing SEO.

Meta Tags: Their Types and Importance While Doing SEO