Internet Marketing News: What are Meta Tags? [+] Expansion Plus, Inc

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Internet Marketing News: What are Meta Tags?

12/13/2007

Creating effective meta tags is an important part of your Internet marketing strategy.

The benefits are:

The search engines will index the page correctly and to the best advantage of the client based on the client's keywords.
As most users find what they are looking for through a search engine, it is vital to provide the search engines exactly what they need.

MetaTags Meta tags provide valuable information to the searcher when the search results come up; which when done correctly, will lead them to click through to the client's site.

Definitions:

Meta is a prefix that in most information technology usages means "an underlying definition or description." Thus, metadata is a definition or description of data and metalanguage is a definition or description of language. Meta derives from Greek, meaning "among, with, after, change." For data and information, the prefix carries the meaning of "more comprehensive or fundamental."

HTML Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes.

Tag (n) A command inserted in a docHypertextument that specifies how the document, or a portion of the document, should be formatted. Tags are used by all format specifications that store documents as text files. (v) To mark a section of a document with a formatting command.
There are hundreds of other tags used to format and lay out the information in a Web page. Tags are also used to specify hypertext links. These allow Web developers to direct users to other Web pages with only a click of the mouse on either an image or word(s).

Hypertext A special type of database system in which objects (text, pictures, music, programs, and so on) can be creatively linked to each other. When you select an object, you can see all the other objects that are linked to it. You can move from one object to another even though they might have very different forms.

For example, while reading a document about Mozart, you might click on the phrase Violin Concerto in A Major, which could display the written score or perhaps even invoke a recording of the concerto. Clicking on the name Mozart might cause various illustrations of Mozart to appear on the screen. The icons that you select to view associated objects are called Hypertext links or buttons.

Meta Tag A Meta tag is an HTML tag that provides information about a web document. Unlike regular tags, meta tags do not provide formatting information for the browser. Instead they provide such information as to what the page is about, a description of the content and keywords that indicate the subject matter. SEARCH ENGINES OFTEN USE THESE TAGS TO INDEX THEIR DATABASES.

There are 3 meta tags that you want to pay attention to when optimizing your site for the search engines:

Title Tag - HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings. SEARCH ENGINES PAY A LOT OF ATTENTION TO THE TITLE TAG. This is also what appears on a search results page as the headline of your listing. So this is VERY important. It is vital to have the main keyword in the title tag.

Description Tag - This is the blurb that searchers see right under your title tag. THE WORDING OF THIS TAG WILL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE OF WHETHER THE SEARCHER CLICKS YOUR LISTING OR CHOOSES ANOTHER ONE.

Keywords Tag - The title tag and description tags would be based on keyword research. You can only list the keywords in the tags that are actually in the body text on the page. Some search engines don't pay much attention to this tag anymore. But some do and it is better to have it there than not.

Meta tags are an important part of Internet marketing strategy. Do them well to help the search engines find you and to describe your site correctly.

Author Bio:

Sally Falkow is president of Expansion Plus, co-developer of PRESSfeed and author of The PRoActive Report. She is a senior fellow of the Society for New Communication Research, and speaks at industry conferences and corporate training sessions on how technology affects the practice of PR. For more information about Sally and Expansion Plus, please visit their website.