Meta Tags
in Web Pages
|
Meta Tags |
Meta Tags are components of a Web page that store information used by browsers and search engines but are not displayed when viewed by a browser like Netscape. Meta Tags are included in the header <head> section of your HTML code. Many Meta Tags are available. Keywords, description and title are covered here.
Keywords
The "keywords" tag is used by search engines that index our
site. Enter important words (key-words) that are in your document.
Separate keywords with a comma, avoid duplication of keywords like: crop, crop
marketing (the word/keyword crop is entered twice) since the search engines may
quit indexing a site when it finds duplication. Use singular terms like
'crop' versus 'crops' and I have read it is safest to use lower case.
Description
The "description" tag is also used by search engines to determine if
your site matches the requested query. The description is limited to 200
characters or about 25 words. It should be written in a somewhat sentence
format but include your major keywords. You can use the document title if
you wish but the description tag gives you an opportunity to add a little more
description than you usually find in a title.
Title
The "title" tag is also very important. The text entered in
the title tag will be displayed on the upper right hand corner (above the title
bar, not on the main page screen) of Netscape when the page is viewed, it is
also printed on the upper left hand corner of printed pages unless that feature
is turned off. Search engines will identify your page by displaying the
title when it lists matches. When you are searching and see a list of
pages and some say 'no title' it is because the page author did not fill this
tag in.
Example of the meta tags used for this
Web page.
Note the name of tag and the actual keywords and description are in
quotes. "abcdefg"
<html>
<head>
<meta name="keywords" content="meta, tag, head, keyword,
description, title, search engine, html,">
<meta name="description" content="Three of the most important
meta tags in the header of a Web page">
<title>Meta Tags in a Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
The text and graphics of your page goes here.
</body>
</html>
FrontPage will help you generate these tags. Right click on the page you are editing and select Page Properties from the pop-up dialog box. You can enter the title of your page by viewing the General Tab. The Custom Tab will display System and User variables, click on the Add button for the System variables and type keywords in the Name box and then your actual key-words in the Value box, likewise, Add - System - description - description of your page.
View your meta tags by using the HTML screen mode. You can also add and/or edit meta tags from this mode.
You may see:
<meta http-equiv="description"
content="
versus:
<meta name="description" content="
but not to worry, they mean the same thing, FrontPage seems to like meta
http-equiv instead of meta name.
Meta Tags used on our home page (http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu)
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<meta name="keywords"
content="home ownership, parenting, family, food, safety, nutrition, horticulture,
flower, garden, landscaping, turf, lawn, grass, tree, crop, grain, hrsw, wheat, durum, canola, barley, rye, oats,
flax, fertility, pest, insect, disease, herbicide, pesticide, insecticide, fungicide,
fertilize, rotation, yield, growing condition, grain grading, growth staging,
growing degree days, market, marketing, agriculture, research, beef, cow,
dairy, calf, grazing, swine, sheep, production, quality,
weed, futures, ndsu, extension service, north dakota state university">
<meta name="description"
content="Information from North Dakota State University on Agriculture,
Natural Resources, Horticulture, Community and Economic Development, Food,
Food Safety and Nutrition and Home, Youth and Family ">
<meta name="Author" content="David G. Rice">
<meta name="Publisher" content="NDSU Extension Service">
<meta name="Identifier-URL" content="http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/">
<meta name="Publisher-Email" content="drice@ndsuext.nodak.edu">
<meta name="Content-Language" content="en-US">
<meta name="Coverage" content="United States">
<title>NDSU Agriculture, Horticulture, Youth, Family, Food and Community</title>
</head>
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Communication Computer Support Page
Go to the Agriculture
Communication Department Home Page