Metadata Elements
Metadata elements or usually referred as META Tags are generally found within the <head> and </head> tags of a web page. META Tags are still relevant with indexing in search engines.
META Tags should be utilized in accordance with the search engines which we are targeting and also W3C – World Wide Web Consortium Metadata Specifications .
Following is a partial list of META Tags which may be used in the overall site structure, organization and search engine strategies.
1. Page Titles – Title Element
Every html document must have a TITLE Element in the head section. Some refer to the <title> element as a meta tag (title tag) when it is not.
<title>Wanted - Free Webmaster Resources</title>
To see an example of where the title element is placed in the html, view the source code of this web page. Look at the very top of the page right after the opening <head> tag.
2. META Description Tag
Some search engines will index the META Description Tag found in the <head></head> section of your web pages. These indexing search engines may present the content of your meta description tag as the result of a search query.
<meta name="description" content="Find only the best tips, tricks, and advice for your website. We supply you with only the most wanted of resources for running your website totally free!">
3. META Keywords Tag
The META Keywords Tag is where you list keywords and keyword phrases that you’ve targeted for that specific page. There have been numerous discussions at various search engine marketing forums surrounding the use of the keywords tag and its effectiveness. The overall consensus is that the tag has little to no relevance with the major search engines today.
<meta name="keywords" content="free resources, webmaster resources, wordpress, seo, site optimization, website, advice, tricks, tutorials, scripts">
4. META Language Tag
In HTML elements, the language attribute or META Language Tag specifies the natural language. This document is mostly concerned with how to specify the primary language(s) (there could be more than one) and the base language (there is only one) in HTML documents.
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en">
5. META Link Relationship Tag
It is helpful for search results to reference the beginning of the collection of documents in addition to the page hit by the search. You may help search engines by using the link element with rel="start" along with the title attribute. The META Link Relationship tag is part of the metadata that appears within the <head></head> section of your web pages.
<link rel="start" href="/meta-tags/" title="Wanted - Free Webmaster Resources">
6. META Robots Tag
- The Robots META Tag is meant to provide users who cannot upload or control the
/robots.txt fileat their websites, with a last chance to keep their content out of search engine indexes and services.<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">- META Robots Tag for Googlebot
Googlebot obeys thenoindex,nofollow, andnoarchiveMETA Robots Tags. If you place these tags in the head of your HTML/XHTML document, you can cause Google to not index, not follow, and/or not archive particular documents on your site.<meta name="googlebot" content="noindex, nofollow, noarchive"> - META Robots Tag for MSNBot
MSNBot obeys thenoindexandnofollowRobots META Tag. Placing these tags in the heading of your HTML document prevents MSNBot from indexing or following specific documents.<meta name="msnbot" content="noindex, nofollow">
- META Robots Tag for Googlebot
7. META Revist-After Tag
The revisit-after META tag is not supported by any major search engines, it never was supported and probably never will be. It was developed for, and supported by, Vancouver Webpages and their local search engine searchBC.
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">
8 HTML Comments Tag
HTML comments are not metadata but, are typically found in the <head></head> section of web pages. HTML comments can be utilized anywhere within your documents HTML structure.
<!-- HTML Comments (treated as HTML markup) -->
There has been a myth that has perpetuated over the years where keywords and keyword phrases listed inside HTML comments tags would add a boost to the overall relevancy of the page.
Credits : Google
