Meta Tags and Search Engine Optimization: Friend or Foe

by Tara Johns
Meta tags are HTML tags that provide information describing the content of the pages a user will be viewing. These tags are hidden from the viewer and only seen by browsers and search engine spiders. Meta tags can either be your greatest friend or, if you’re not careful, your biggest foe. Why? If you create meta tags that do not accurately describe your content, you run the risk of poor search engine rankings and possibly getting banned from some search engines. Let’s take a look at the various types of meta tags and how to create them for maximum search engine ranking.

• Title: This is considered to be the most important HTML tag used by many search engines as part of their ranking criteria. A Web page with a keyword in the title tag will rank higher than if the keyword was used in the body text alone. When a user views search results, the title tag will usually appear as the title of your Web page. Therefore, you will want to make sure your title accurately describes the content on the page so it doesn’t get passed over as irrelevant to the user.

• Description: The description tag is the next most important meta tag. As with the title, your description will typically be listed in the search engines. You will have to tread the fine line between creating an effective description that will attract visitors yet still rank well in the search engines based on your selected keywords.

• Keywords: When meta tags were a critical component of search engine optimization, many webmasters and web site owners thought they could beat the system by overloading their content with keywords, whether or not it related to the actual content on the page. Due to this abuse, search engines have reduced the importance of the keywords meta tag when ranking a Web page for keyword relevance. Many search engines have even decided to omit the keywords tag altogether from their ranking criteria. While it has reduced in significance, it is still an important meta tag to include in your Web pages — if done correctly.

• Copyright: The copyright meta tag is not viewable in the search engine results or on your Web page. This tag highlights and documents the copyright status of a portion or all of a particular Web page. Although it won’t necessarily prevent someone from taking your copy, it will notify those that are doing so in a legitimate manner that it infringes upon your conditions of use. Some search engine spiders will read this tag, which may result in higher ranking.

• Robots: The robot tag is essentially a set of instructions for search engine spiders that crawl your Web page.

• Rating: The rating tag defines your preferred access level. It can be a useful mechanism for search engine spiders to determine the level of access appropriate for the associated Web page. However this is more often used in restricted environments of a company Intranet rather than the wide-scope of the Internet.

For maximum search engine optimization, try focusing on just one or two keywords and include them in the title, description and keyword meta tags. Once you start adding more keywords, their relevance will be diluted resulting in a lower search engine ranking.

Remember, while meta tags aren’t the most critical factor in search engine optimization, they are still important and need to be done correctly. In order to use meta tags effectively — and to your advantage — don’t overload your meta tags with keywords. Otherwise, you run the risk of being penalized or even banned from the search engines.

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