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Meta Tags
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Meta tag optimization is not enough to get rankings anymore but they still matter
The early days of search engine optimization essentially began and ended with Meta tags. Most web developers didn’t even know a Meta tag from a price tag, but the ones who did were experts in SEO at that time. Over time, the art and science of achieving rankings on the search engines has somewhat devalued the Meta tag and evolved to include content optimization, site architecture, link building, and many other elements.
Do Search Engines even care about Meta Tags anymore?
Today most web developers add Meta tags and unique page titles, but this alone will never be enough to get ranked for even non-competitive keywords; however it remains a core SEO best practice to optimize Meta tags and specifically Page Titles, Meta Keywords, and Meta Description tags. These tags are still components of several different search engines’ ranking algorithms and even more importantly, they appear as important page deceptions in the search engine ranking results pages (Serps).
"Most SEO Experts rank the page title as the most important element to optimize in order to build authority for the primary keyword on the page."
Meta Title Tag
If you were teaching a novice about SEO, one of the first items on your agenda would be to give each of your pages a unique title, which is done in the Meta title tag. Re-titling pages is critical for several reasons, including being a key SEO optimization element. In addition, the title is what appears at the top of your browser and is often (though not always) what is displayed as the link in a search engine ranking. This makes the title tag an important element to optimize in order to improve usability on the website. Another often overlooked benefit of the page title is that it is an important web accessibility consideration.
Meta Description
The Meta description tag is what you most likely will see as your page description on the search engine results pages if the keyword that you are targeting appears in the Meta description tag. This offers a tremendous opportunity to help build on the theme for the page but also as a small bit of ad copy should your page rank for the keyword. A well written Meta description tag can increase your click through rates if your page is ranked for a keyword. Where the title tag grabs the attention of the user and tells him that your page has information he is looking for, the Meta description provides a "call to action" to click your link.
Meta Keywords
The Meta keywords tag was the first element that webmasters used to "spam" search engines. This technique did not work for long as the search engines quickly adapted and eventually most of them ceased to use this element as any part of their ranking algorithms. Since this is not true of all search engines and properly implemented Meta tags will not hurt your rankings, it is advisable to continue with proper Meta tag optimization.
Yes! Meta Tags are Important
Meta tag optimization MUST be included as part of any good search engine optimization services but if your SEO efforts end here don’t expect to get great rankings. At SEO Inc. we include more details on Meta tag optimization best practices for all SEO consulting engagements and we use these when we optimize websites for our in house clients. Our Meta tag optimization methodology has evolved over the past dozen years as the search engines have involved.
- Proper formatting of Meta tags
- Proper positioning of Meta tags in the code
- Length of each Meta tag
- Where to position keywords in Meta tags
- Meta tags to avoid and Meta tags that provide SEO benefits
Meta tag optimization must be included as only a part of the overall SEO strategy. It is critical to first pay close attention to your website architecture and content strategy. If the search engine spiders cannot find your pages and your Meta tags do not support the content on the page, each Meta tag will be meaningless.
Now Check Your Meta Tags
After reading about Meta tags you may now be interested in knowing which Meta tags your Web site is using. You may submit the URL of a Web page below to find which Meta tags are found on that page.
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