Meta Tag: what they are and how to write the SEO alphabet

Focus on Meta Tags, the SEO alphabet and introduction to basic HTML. What are the Meta Tags and why is it important to write them correctly in order to make them read by the search engine.

Meta tags are portions of HTML that provide information on the website. Why do we take care of it? Because knowing what they are and above all how they must be written to work is not a topic that concerns only webmasters. Instead, it is important that those who have a site know how it ‘speaks’ to the search engine and in particular to Google.

Meta Tag: definition and function

The most stringent definition that can be given of Meta Tags is this: ” Meta Tags are part of the HTML tags that describe the content of the page to search engines and website visitors “. This is basically information, called metadata, which is not displayed in the front end of the site, but which is found in its structure and allows search engines to classify its content . In other words, Meta Tags are basic elements that appear in a website’s HTML code and tell the search engine what that site is about.

How does this mechanism work in practice? Here, for example, how Google works, a giant in the online search sector and practically a monopolist operator or almost. There is talk of Googlebot to generally indicate Google’s web crawler or spider , or the bot that periodically analyzes the World Wide Web and individual sites to create an index relative to the first and a map of the second.

Big G in particular uses a desktop crawler and a mobile crawler to simulate respectively a user who uses a fixed device and one who navigates from a mobile device. In this way it is able to scan every site, in every single component or page, to obtain useful information for usability by the end user.

Meta Tag and SEO: an inseparable combination

If Meta Tags are the means of communication between the site and the search engine, knowing them and making them easy to read and interpretable is essential to be indexed by the search engine and consequently to have a good natural position on the keywords. This is undoubtedly a valid reason that explains why the study of Meta Tags is still an obligatory step for those involved in Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ), or optimization of a website .

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Being the first point of ‘connection’ between the site and the search engine it is necessary that they are written following precise rules, so that the content can be indexed and mapped on the chosen keywords.

To do some practice, before going into detail, the advice is to study the structure of websites similar to yours or any competitors , taking a look at the source code of the page and the use of Meta Tags: to do this just use the shortcut command Ctrl + U and spend some time analyzing. The second tip for a well done SEO is to take care of the essential: the less code is present in the structure, the better. Non-essential Meta Tags are a hindrance to the search engine which has as its purpose only those of interpreting, cataloging, indexing and mapping. To put it simply: think of the source code as directions to get to the destination: they must be clear and all point in the same direction.

Meta Tags recognized by Google: which are the primary ones

Imagine the page source as the page of a book to be studied: what are the most significant parts to highlight in order to make the search engine understand what is written and what is that text about? Even in Meta Tags there are portions of code that have greater relevance than others: two in particular, title and description , must be well done to perform their function properly. Both go to ‘impact’ on the SERP ( Search Engine Results Page ), that is, in the search engine results page and contain respectively the main label of the site and the information that induces the visitor to click.

What it is and how to write the “Tag Title”

It is located in the section of your site and contains the first basic information for SEO and for visitors who find this tag both in the SERP ( Search Engine Results Page ), and in the Tab of various browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc. Each page of the site must have a unique and univocal title that can describe it, structured as follows:

Three tips to make a good Tag Title:

Write a title of about 55-60 characters
Incorporate the ‘long tail’ keywords
Start the title tag with your main keyword.
What is and how to write the “meta description”

The challenge in Meta Description is to summarize , but effectively, the page: what it contains, what it is used for, why it is worth reading. Your ad on the SERP will have to attract the attention of the user, in order to transform it – with his click – into a visitor to your site. Typically, search engines show the Meta Description in the search results under the Tag Title. Here is a piece of code, as an example:

How do you write a good Meta Description? Here are some tips to hit this essential tag in the structure of the site in an SEO perspective.

The length visible in the description field is approximately 160 characters, which is reduced to 130 characters for mobile search results.

Add a clear Call To Action (CTA) if the purpose of the page requires it, such as: find out more, contact us, sign up now etc.

Add targeted keywords.

What are the other primary Meta Tags?

Without going into HTML language techniques, we want to focus on three other Meta Tags that must be considered with particular regard for the functions they perform.

Alternative Text Tag : it is used to make the search engine read the image or images uploaded on a site. Google has no eyes (not physical, at least!) And can understand what a photograph or a drawing represents, thanks to this Tag. This is why it is so important to know how to use Alt text: the page can also be indexed through an image. What to do to optimize a photo for SEO? Remember to name the photo; the Alt text must be clear and explanatory; use a maximum of about 55 characters for the description in the Tag field.

Meta Tag Robots : the robot tag is a category of HTML tags positioned in the section of your web page that tells search engines if and how they should crawl the pages of a website. This meta tag specifically provides instructions to crawlersof the search engine on the indexing or noindex of a web page. Inserting incorrect attributes in the robot meta tag can have a negative effect on SEO and therefore on the presence of your site in search results. There are four values that can be attributed to the tag and they are: 1) “index” tells robots to index the page; 2) “noindex” tells robots not to index the page; 3) “follow” tells robots to scan the links on the page and that you also guarantee for those; 4) “nofollow” tells robots not to scan the links on the page and that no approval is implied.

Meta Tag Keywords : let’s leave this meta tag with a misleading name. In fact, it might seem that using tags with keywords can be a good ‘trick’ to attract the attention of the search engine. In reality this is not the case and Google does not use Meta Tags with keywords neither for indexing nor for ranking. Because? Because they have become a potentially deceptive tool in the hands of expert webmasters: the so-called keywords stuffing, or the abuse of often irrelevant keywords.

For this reason, Google has started ignoring these Meta Tags since 2009; while Bing even regards them as potential ‘spam’. Although therefore for SEO the relevance is equal to zero, knowing how to use the Meta Tag Keywords can still be useful because they offer site managers the opportunity to define a set of keywords for a potential search. To do this effectively, the choice of keywords must be weighted: yes to the relevant keywords, no to the excessive and redundant use of keywords.