Metatags - the correct use

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Metatags - the correct use

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In this article you will learn to insert particular information dedicated to the dialogue between your page and the search engines, using HTML tags: the so-called metatags.
To better explain this, metatags help to improve the ranking of a site but they are not the magic formula to reach the top.

Suggestions to use the metatags

01.Use keywords in the <TITLE> of your document to make it as descriptive as possible. The <TITLE> tag is not exactly a metatag, but during the optimisation we need to put it with the metatags. The <TITLE> tag is what a browser shows in the title bar.
Search engines will show the text you put in the <TITLE> tag when your site shows up in a search list. Having a descriptive <TITLE> tag will help your site to gain a better position compared to sites that have only keywords or nothing at all.
It is also important for people who bookmark your site. Instead of writing <TITLE>Restaurant Whatever</TITLE>, use <TITLE>Restaurant Whatever - Seafood specialties</TITLE>.
If your name is descriptive, it will be easier for the users to find your site in the bookmarks the next time they want to come back and visit you. At the same time, you have 4 keywords in the title.

02.Use the metatags, they allow you to give more details about your web page. The metatags must be inserted in the tag <HEAD>-----</HEAD>.
The basic syntax is:

<META name="description" content="A restaurant in Melbourne specialised in seafood">

This message will be shown in the search results just after the title: the users will understand immediately what your site is about.

<META name="keywords" content="Victoria, Australia, oysters, prawns, Italian, recipes, food">

This will allow you to give extra information about your page without the user being able to see it. It is not necessary to repeat the same keyword: for example, "restaurant", "seafood" and "Melbourne" are already in your <TITLE> so you don't need to add them to your keywords list.
It is not necessary to write keyword as singular and plural, nor with the first letter capitalised or not: they show up anyway. On the contrary, certain search engines could penalise you for that: Infoseek and Lycos are 2 examples, but others could adopt the same policy in the future.

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The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world and it would always give you the right thing. And we're a long, long way from that.

Larry Page

Metatags - the correct use

Suggestions to use the metatags

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