One use of the meta tag is to specify HTTP headers that should be sent to the client before the web page itself is sent. For example:

<meta http-equiv = "Content-Type" content = "text/html" / >

This entry indicates that the page should be sent along with the HTTP header Content-Type: text/html. This header tells the browser or other program the type of document being sent. However, although it was originally intended that web servers would read the meta tags inside the web pages sent to the client, and generate HTTP headers depending on their content, in practice this is not implemented in the most used web servers Accordingly, web servers do not change the HTTP headers sent to the client, and the client (web browser) processes these meta tags independently (in particular, data from meta tags can replace data received from HTTP headers).

Additionally, meta tags can be used to tell the browser information about a document when HTTP headers are not available (for example, if the page is opened locally from disk rather than loaded from a web server).

In general, metadata is written as follows: the meta tag contains a name attribute and an associated content attribute that describes some aspect of the web page, such as keywords:

<meta name = "keywords" content = "Wikipedia, encyclopedia" / >

Meta Tag Functions

The functions of meta tags are quite diverse, but at the moment there is no clear standardization of them. However, there are several main areas for using meta tags:

• Meta tags are able to identify the authorship of an Internet page, its address, and the frequency of its updates;
• Meta tags are used by search engines to index and create titles for hypertext documents;
• Without being displayed on the screen, meta tags affect the display mode of Internet pages.

Meta tag groups

Meta tags are divided into two main groups - NAME and HTTP-EQUIV. The NAME group is responsible for textual information about the page, its author, as well as recommendations for search engines. HTTP-EQUIVs are essentially equivalent to hypertext headers, forming the page title and determining its processing. As a rule, they control the actions of browsers and are used to generate information produced by regular headers.

Group NAME

Author and Copyright meta tag

Meta tag PICS-Label

Meta tag Window-target

Determining the loading page window.

Meta tag Imagetoolbar

Disables Image Control Panels. Typically used when displaying banners, picture backgrounds, image maps, etc., when displaying this panel is undesirable.

<meta http-equiv = "imagetoolbar" content = "no" / >

Meaning of meta tags

Metadata about a web page was originally intended to help search engines assign a web page to a particular category. In the 90s, meta tags were actively used to promote a website, including by providing false or redundant metadata. After this, search engines began to pay little attention to metadata; Now the correct structuring of the web page and the presence of a large number of links to the site from authoritative resources are more important.

Due to the fact that meta tags have a purely auxiliary function, and, in addition, significantly increase the size of a hypertext document, novice Web designers often prefer to ignore them. In addition, the meta tags of the HTTP-EQUIV group are quite difficult to use, as they set strict page formatting parameters. However, meta tags make a web page indexed more successfully by search engines.

I prepared this material for beginners in SEO, as well as for website owners who do not know how to correctly fill out meta tags. Let's consider what is relevant now and what is no longer used by the search engine when ranking a site.

Let's start by defining what meta tags are?

Meta tags are (X)HTML tags designed to provide structured metadata about a web page. Typically indicated in the tag title (X)HTML document. Meta tags do not appear on the page and have no visible content. They contain additional information for search robots and various software.

In SEO, when we hear something like “We need to add meta tags on the page,” the Description and Keywords meta tags immediately pop up in our heads, and, of course, Title. What is SEO without this tag? I'll start right away with them.

Title tag

It is also called the Title meta tag, although, from a technical point of view, this is not so. A very important tag that affects ranking is the title of the page and is often used by search robots when forming a snippet title. Therefore, in addition to the fact that you need to add basic keywords to the Title, it is important to monitor its attractiveness. It should encourage users to go to the site.

Title should:

1. Display the essence of the page.
2. Closer to the beginning, contain a direct occurrence of the most competitive query.
3. Be a readable sentence with keywords included.
4. Different from page title

   .

5. Do not contain spam.
6. Be unique for each page.
7. Approximate length - about 70 - 130 characters.

For landing pages, categories, sections, I recommend filling out the Description manually.

You can automatically fill in the Description, for example, for product cards. To do this, use templates like:

Description: In our online store + “store name” + available prices from + “price” + to + “name of product card” + with delivery to + “city”.

Description: “Product card name” + at an affordable price + “price” + from an online store + “store name” + with delivery to + “city”.

What not to do:

1. Don’t make your Description too short—in Google Search Console, in the HTML Optimization section, you can see short meta descriptions.
2. There, track and correct duplicate Descriptions (they must be unique).

1. Don't write inconsistent phrases—the meta tag should be readable. Don't use enumerations.

Meta Keywords tag

This meta tag does not affect rankings, but since Yandex writes that meta keywords can be taken into account, I recommend filling it out by adding 3-5 phrases relevant to the content, separated by commas.

Meta tag expires- also used to control caching. The date is set in the meta tag. When it passes, the browser must use a repeated network request rather than the existing page cache. The date is specified in RFC850 format.

Usage example:

Content-language meta tag— indicates the language of the document.

Usage example:

In HTML5, specifying the language is simplified:

I tried to list, as it seemed to me, the most interesting meta tags. If you are interested in other meta, I recommend reading the materials: Meta tags that are supported by Google and Using Yandex HTML elements.

Let's sum it up

There are quite a lot of meta tags, but as an optimizer, most often you have to use the Title tag, meta description, meta keywords in SEO. If you are a beginner SEO specialist or a website owner, I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the webinar “Rules for Forming Title and Description” by our SEO-TeamLead Evgeniy Aralov:

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Meta tags are part of the HTML code enclosed between the tag ...(page title). These attributes are optional: they are not visible to the user, but provide certain information to the search engine (description, title, keywords, etc.).

Tasks of meta tags

Meta tags perform several important functions:

• They influence how the page is displayed and what position it occupies in the index (issue).
• They help promote the resource according to the queries most relevant to your target audience. They allow a potential visitor to see the necessary information in the search results, making the description as informative as possible.
• They record data about the page, help to correctly display information, set up indexing (analysis of the site and entering it into the database for subsequent inclusion in search results).

Now meta tags do not have a strong impact on promotion, but are still taken into account when evaluated by search engines. All other things being equal, preference is given to a resource with well-formed tags.

Meta tags for SEO (search engine) optimization

This includes three tags: title, description, keywords. These attributes provide the search robot with information about the site, which helps to correctly determine the subject of the resource and rank (sort) it in the results. Therefore, when composing meta tags, webmasters must use keywords (words and phrases that the target user enters into the search bar to find the desired resource).

• Title

Page title. In the index it is a large blue link to the site, in browser tabs it is the name.

How to fill out

The attribute should contain the main keywords and competitive advantages. It is important that the user immediately understands what you offer and why this resource is suitable for him. The main difficulty is to fit the necessary information into the character limit clearly defined by search engines. Google has a maximum of 70 (12 words), Yandex has a maximum of 80 (15 words).

Example:
Given: keywords “buy a chair”, “buy a cheap chair”, “buy a comfortable chair”
Unsuccessful title: Buy a chair. Buy a comfortable chair, buy an inexpensive chair
Successful title: How to buy a comfortable chair inexpensively with delivery and get a 15% discount?

In the first case, it is overspam (an excess of key phrases), an unreadable sentence from the user’s point of view. The second version of the meta tag combines all the necessary keywords in a logical sequence and indicates the company’s competitive advantage (discount).

• Description

A brief “announcement” of the page in search results. A few short sentences that use the keywords (not all the most significant) of a particular page. The recommended meta tag length is 160-200 characters.

Title and Description meta tags are compiled separately for each page of the site, because all sections must have their own list of key phrases corresponding to the topic and content.

Using meta name description by a search robot, the page description is a snippet. Displayed in search results under the title.

If the attribute is not filled in or is not formed according to the rules (the character limit is significantly exceeded, overspam), then the search robot creates a description automatically, “assembling” it from pieces of phrases on the page. The result is not very attractive and “selling”.

How to fill out
Given: bookstore; keywords “interesting book”, “buy book”
Unsuccessful Description: Books have long been one of man’s closest “friends.” An interesting book helps pass the time, provides useful knowledge, reveals interesting facts, and awakens emotions. Therefore, it is worth considering buying a book in our store.
Successful Description: Need an interesting book? Our store has a wide selection of topics: from highly specialized literature to world bestsellers. You can buy a book from us with delivery within 1-5 days to any region of the Russian Federation. First customers receive a 10% discount.

The first option is not a specially composed meta tag, but a piece of an article taken from the page. Perhaps the user is interested in reading a literary text, but when accessing a search engine, he would prefer to receive an answer to a specific purchase request. Therefore, meta tags for a site of the second type are more attractive: they immediately give an understanding of what range and benefits the store offers.

• Keywords

Tells the search robot the keywords for which the content is targeted. The search robot checks the phrases in the content of the page with those specified in this tag, and takes the results obtained into account in the future when determining the position of the resource.

Now search engines do not give this attribute as much weight as before. But proper use of it will not be superfluous.

How to fill out

Use 3-6 keywords/phrases separated by commas. Excessive use may be considered by the search engine as overspam. The list should only include queries used on the page, for which the text, product names, etc. are optimized!

Technical meta tags

Attributes of internal resource optimization. Such meta tags customize the information that is displayed to the user in the browser and include certain options (for example, they make it possible to close certain sections for indexing).

The most common technical meta tags are:

• Content-type. Includes document type and encoding information. Affects how correctly the page will be displayed in the browser. This is especially true if the browser or server is configured incorrectly. In such a situation, the document will be shown in a different encoding, and the user will not be able to change anything even by trying to switch manually.

(for Cyrillic the windows-1251 or KOI-8R attribute is used)

• Content-language. Contains information about the language of the content. As with the previous tag, browsers now detect the language automatically. But in case of incorrect settings, this tag will be useful.

• Robots. Shows the search robot which pages should be included in the index and which should not. This tag requires a number of additional attributes: index/noindex (can/cannot be indexed); follow/nofollow (take into account/ignore hyperlinks); all/none (open/close page and hyperlinks for indexing).

• Refresh. Allows you to set the page refresh time when loading or redirecting the user to another section. The tag is useful when updating a site: instead of a 404 error page or long loading time, it redirects the user to a new section.

• Meta Author and Copyright. These tags can be used to indicate the authorship of the graphic and text content of the page.

(page author)

(copyright property)

author/owner address)

All of the above meta tags for the site are designed, first of all, to improve the perception of your resource by the search engine. Therefore, pay attention to the competent compilation of these attributes, reflect only truthful information, and do not be mistaken about the number and content of keywords.

Remember that now search engines evaluate resources, first of all, by the quality of content, code, and structure. Therefore, when composing meta tags, it is important to put yourself in the user’s position: indicate data that can affect the perception and display of the page, present useful information consistently, logically, with key benefits for the client.

The article was prepared by Victoria Zakirova.

Vlad Merzhevich

Meta tags are used to store information intended for browsers and search engines. For example, search engine engines access meta tags to obtain site descriptions, keywords, and other data.

Meta tags for search engines

There is an opinion among website developers that correctly written meta tags allow you to rise to the top of search engines. In fact, this is not true; meta tags alone will not help you rise high, but poorly executed meta tag content can worsen the site’s ranking.

Two meta tags are designed specifically for search engines: description and keywords. Some webmasters added keywords to the keywords section that had nothing to do with the topic of the site, but nevertheless enjoyed some success among search engine visitors. However, after some time, search engines learned to deal with this phenomenon and check the content of a web page for compliance with the stated keywords.

Some principles related to meta tags:

• do not include keywords that are not contained on your pages;
• do not repeat keywords;
• use meta tags for their intended purpose;
• make the description and list of keywords different for each page of the site, taking into account the content.

description

Most search engines display the contents of the description field (example 1) when displaying search results. If this tag is not on the page, then the search engine will simply list the first words found on the page, which, as a rule, are not very relevant to the topic.

Example 1: Using Description

keywords

This meta tag was intended to describe keywords appearing on the page (Example 2). But as a result, the actions of people who want to get to the top of search engines by any means necessary have now been discredited. Therefore, many search engines skip this parameter.

Example 2: Using Keywords

Keywords can be listed separated by spaces or commas. Search engines themselves will convert the entry to the form they use.

Autoloading pages

To automatically download a new document after a certain period of time, use the http-equiv="refresh" instruction (example 3).

The browser will understand this entry to wait 5 seconds and then load the new page specified in the URL parameter, in this case a link to the website site.

This meta tag allows you to create a redirection to another site. If no URL is specified, the current page will automatically refresh after the number of seconds specified in the content attribute.

Encoding

To tell the browser what encoding the characters on a web page are in, you need to set the parameter . For the Windows operating system and the Cyrillic alphabet, the charset usually takes the value utf-8 or windows-1251 (example 4).

Example 4. Selecting the current encoding

Cyrillic

If there is no encoding specified, the browser itself tries to determine what type of characters is used in the document and selects the necessary encoding automatically. The browser may not always accurately recognize the language of a web page and in some cases will suggest Vietnamese encoding instead of Cyrillic. For this reason, it is better to always include the line given. However, there are circumstances where specifying the encoding may cause some harm. For example, the web server automatically uses data transcoding in KOI-8, and the browser, when it encounters the charset=windows-1251 parameter, converts the text to Windows encoding. This results in a double change of characters; it is not easy to read such text. Fortunately, such a problem is already a thing of the past; in any case, it can be easily identified and neutralized at the server level.

What are meta tags? Meta tags are special html tags located in the container and are designed to transmit information about the site to browsers and search engines. For example, when crawling your resource, search robots collect page titles, site descriptions, keywords, author information and other information contained in tags . Before showing the page of the user’s website, the browser does the same to understand in what form the site should be shown for a PC or a smartphone.

In this material, meta tags will be considered through the prism of . And you can learn the basic rules for filling them out, analyzing and checking them using webmaster tools.

Types of meta tags:

• title( title) - page titles;
• description( discrimination) — brief description of the page;
• keywords( keywords) - keywords;
• technical meta tags (responsible for the correct display of the page).

How to fill out meta tags correctly

From an SEO point of view, the main meta tags of a website are Title and Description. Therefore, we will consider the correctness of filling them out. We repeat that all of them must be located between the tags and not in any other place in the code.

If your site is made on a CMS, then to edit the section with meta tags, you need to install a special plugin or module.

Title

Meta tag

Description

The Description meta tag is responsible for describing the essence of the information on the page in a few sentences. Typically, the search engine takes information from this tag to form a snippet in the search results (most often Google does this, less often Yandex).

The description should also include a direct occurrence of the keyword (if possible supplemented by another word form), talk about the benefits of your offer, plus serve as a promotion for the main content of the page. Let's try to create page descriptions for the two examples mentioned above.

Examples:

1. “Buy a laptop in Moscow. Order a laptop at a price of 19,990 rubles in the online store. Delivery is free. 2 year warranty."
2. “How to properly grow aloe at home. Gardener magazine shares the secrets of growing aloe plants at home.»

Length no more than 140 characters. In pure html, it would look like this:

Keywords

The Keywords meta tag is a set of keywords by which the page is promoted. However, today this attribute is already is not mandatory and can be filled out optionally, So, in the “golden era” of SEO, it was overused and search engines practically do not pay attention to it. If you still decide to fill in the keywords, it is better to do this by simply listing the words in the initial form without commas:

“Buy a laptop in Moscow order price cost ruble online store catalog delivery guarantee”

Any length, but don’t be too zealous. In html it is correctly written like this:

You can parse competitors' meta tags in just a couple of clicks - using a parser.

Technical meta tags

• Expires — document expiration date.
• Pragma - a ban on the use of cached data; information must be loaded from the server.
• Content-Type - content type and encoding.
• Content-language — page/site language.
• Cache-Control - Sets whether the document is cached or not, and if so, how.
• Robots - is responsible for indexing individual pages.
• document-state — indexing frequency.

The absence of meta tags can negatively affect the display, indexing and ranking of pages.

How to add meta tags to a CMS

Most often, various CMS are used to manage content on a website, and some of them require the installation of additional modules and plugins to set meta tags. To add meta tags to the CMS you need:

Though Wix and is not a CMS - it is just a constructor, here you can also make a meta description of the site and keywords that contain information about the site. For each page, when you click on three dots, a menu pops up where you can go to the SEO section and set the necessary parameters.

But if you are serious about promoting your site in search engines, it is better not to use Wix and choose, for example, WordPress.

Checking meta tags online + analysis

To check meta tags on your own website, you can use the Yandex webmaster panel. To do this, go to Webmaster "Diagnostics - Site diagnostics." On the page that opens, click “View.” After this, you will be shown a list of pages that are not filled in .

For a comprehensive check or to analyze competitors’ meta descriptions, you can use services that quickly and online show the necessary information.

Here are a few such services:

• Promotional console
• Serpstat
• Pixelplus

Conclusion

Meta tags are the first thing a search engine pays attention to. They are the key factors in ranking site pages in search results. You can’t leave meta descriptions empty; on the contrary, you need to be very careful about filling them out, and now you know how to do it.