The importance of Meta Tag

As almost anyone with a website knows, although meta tags are not absolutely essential, most websites have at least three. One is a title meta tag, the second is a keywords meta tag, and the third is a description meta tag.

The title tag, as you would assume, contains the website title. The title need not be the same as the headline a visitor to the site actually sees. For example, the headline at the top of a website might read, "The College Information Page" while the title in the meta tag might say "Online Colleges, Online Degrees, and College Admission". In fact, there is a very good reason why a website owner would want a different title in the meta tag than on the website itself.

The reason is that the function of the website headline is to describe the content of the page for visitors who are already looking at it. The title tag's function, is to help determine the way in which search engines categorize, index, and rank the site. Although a surprising number of website owners choose a title for use in their meta tag without much thought or research, they do so to their detriment.

If you doubt it, do a simple experiment. Pick a search term, any search term, and see which websites come up in the top 10 in Google or Yahoo. Then view their title meta tags. Almost without exception, you'll find the search term.

The keyword meta tag is less important because the major engines pretty much dismiss it. But it too is worth some thought because several smaller search engines and a number of directories do consider it.

The description meta tag does not factor into search engine rankings. But, some search engines and directories use the copy in the tag to describe the site to potential visitors. As a result, the difference between gaining and losing a visitor may be what your description tag says about your site.

Unfortunately, for many website owners, meta tags are an afterthought. And even many of the so-called search engine optimisation gurus do not seem to understand their value. I hope that now you do.
 
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