Websites with the lack of Meta tags are missing out the opportunity to rank in the search results. Read this article and learn how to add Meta tags to your website and the most important tags to focus on first.
Meta tags are HTML tags that give details about your page content to search engines. The main objective of Meta tags is to make it simpler for search engines to discover pages relevant to a search query.
Meta tags appear only in the web page’s code anyone can check them via the source code.
In short, Meta tags are the key things for all search engines that appear in the source code of the website and tells the search engines what’s your page is all about.
Do Meta Tags are important in 2020?
Yes, they do. But not all the tags could help you in 2020.
If you want t rank higher in search results in 2020, then you also need to focus on high-quality content and user satisfaction.
Let’s have a look at the detailed description of these tags and why each one is valuable.
Title Tag:
This is the very first thing every search engine wants to see on your website. It’s basically the name of your web page. Title Tag displayed in two places- the first one is a blue link in the search engine result page and text in the browser tab.
The key thing is that search engines use the Title tag in their algorithm to rank your website on a certain keyword. It is one of Google’s algorithm factors. The title tag is the most important piece of your web page’s content.
Important things to add when crafting your Title Tag:
- Keep your title tag under 60 characters
- Keep it unique for every web page of your website
- Use Focus Keyword first
- Create a click-worthy title tag
- Be Real, No-clickbait
- Write in brief but descriptive
This tag is a direct SEO ranking signal that has a great impact on Google. It also affects your prospective visitors as they are more likely to click through from SERP if the tag is well-written and click-worthy.
Meta Description:
The description tag is the summary of the content which appears on the web page. Search engines show the Meta description in SERP (Search Engine Result Page) after the title tag.
Google does not use the Meta description as a ranking signal, but still it affects your page CTR because it shows up in search results.
That’s why it must be well-written, attractive, and optimized for the same keyword.
A well-written and unique Meta description will enhance your search for the website conversion.
Best Practices:
- The average length of the Meta description is around 160 characters
- Write unique for every web page
- Create something attractive and click-worthy
- Include your focus keyword
- Avoid generic descriptions
Canonical Tag:
A canonical tag is an HTML link tag with a “rel=canonical” attribute which is used to specify that a URL will represent the main copy of a web page.
Using a canonical tag prevents the issue of duplicate content that appears on several URLs.
This tells search engines which URL version you need to appear in the search results.
For example:
- http://www.xyz.com
- https://www.xyz.com
- http://xyz.com
- http://xyz.com/index.php
Search engines see all the above URLs as duplicate versions of the web page. To fix this problem, a canonical tag is used.
Robot Tags:
The Robot tags is an HTML tag that gives instruction to search engine’s web crawlers on whether to index or noindex a web page.
Robot tag has four values for the search engine crawlers;
Index: The Search engine crawler will index the whole web page.
Noindex: The Search engine crawler will not index the web page.
Follow: The Search engine will follow all the links on the web page.
Nofollow: The Search engine will not follow any link on the web page.
You need to focus on noindex and nofollow tags because the search engines will automatically index and follow web pages without placing a tag.
Robot tags can be used for different reasons like duplicate content, private content, or outdated directories.
Such tags must be used otherwise robot tags might affect your SEO performance, and prevent search engines from being crawled.
Header Tags:
A header tag is used to create headlines; by using these tags, we can apply font changes.
The Heading elements are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. H1 is the most important tag, and H6 is the smallest and least important.
Here’s an example of how can we use header tags:
<html>
<body>
<h1> Main Heading </h1>
<h2> Sub Heading</h2>
<h3> Sub Heading</h3>
<h4> Sub Heading</h4>
<h5> Sub Heading</h5>
<h6> Sub Heading</h6>
Alternative Text Tag:
Search Engines can’t read an image, that’s why we use alt text tag. So you need to add proper Alt text to images so that search engines can also consider them.
Alt Text attribute:
<img src=”http://example.com/xyz.jpg” alt=”xyz” />
Main points to consider while creating alt-text for images:
- Alt text needs to be very clear
- Don’t over use characters, keep it short
- Always use the original and right size of the image
- Use an optimal image size without degrading its quality for faster page loading speed
Conclusion
All of the Meta tags we discussed above play a vital role in your website SEO. You need to deeply understand that Meta tags till now are used by search engines to examine your website specialty and content based on the title, description, Alt text, and keywords that you have mentioned within your tags.
Your website will possibly have greater credibility when you have these tags in place.
And these Meta tags are useful in improving your website’s CTR. Whenever users or searchers look that your title and description are eye-catching, they are sure to click on your URL over others.
Meta tags are much useful as they capture the attention of users and promote your branding.
