SEO Basics: Using Meta Tags

In the past, search engines would place great value over meta tags/data. However, because of spam and other black hat techniques, it's value has been decreased by major search engines. Despite this, it is still important to know how to use meta tags and meta data to enhance your site.

What is a meta tag?

A meta tag allows you to describe your site - enabling search engines to better define the purpose and text of your site. It often looks like this:

<META NAME="KEYWORDS" Content="KEYWORD1, KEYWORD2, KEYWORD3"

Note: That the site title and your top keywords should be listed in your meta tags. When listing ensure, that those keywords also appear in the text (paragraph and body of your website). Even in the "alt" text in your pictures, and file names.

What is the meta description?

The meta description is a piece of text that enables snippets to appear in search engines. Have you ever searched something and saw text in the search result? That is the snippet. Snippets do not have much SEO value (in fact, many SEO specialists say that it does not have any). 

Here are some tips when using meta description: 

• When using the meta description it is most advisable to have it 150-160 length. 
• Try to employ 2 to 3 keywords
• Make sure it entices the user to click
• Normally it should include brief description, and something that would catch the readers interest

Another interesting fact to note is that there are situations where you should not employ a meta description on your page. This is when you have multiple articles, text, blogs, entries, pictures, on a page or website - and you want it to be naturally crawled. Having something naturally crawled is great for long-tail phrases and when you want a larger amount of content to be crawled.

Written by Website TOON:  SEO Toronto - Toronto's Search Engine Optimization Team
We provide SEO services and web development to businesses all over Canada.