Meta tags - Definition and analysis

    Meta tags are special tags that can be found in the source code of web sites, there are many types of meta tags the most common are meta title, meta description and meta robots. They affect the positioning of the website in search engines, for example, on Google (WordStream, 2023) . 

Title

    Title is the most important tag for SEO, and catches our attention first.

(Google)

(It is also displayed on a tab in the browser.)

In the source code, it can be found after the <title>content tag</title> (W3Schools, 2023). It is highly recommended that you use an adequate meta title tag, it should contain key information about the content of the page. It should be original, and include the name of the organization the recommended length of the meta tag title is 600px.

Description

    The description does not directly effect the positioning, however posting an accurate description affects the clicking rate on the page. It is located just below the title.

(Google)

In the source code, we can find it under <meta name="description" content="meta description tag content"/> (W3Schools, 2023). It should contain a detailed description of the content, and it is recommended to encourage people to visit the site. 

Robots

    This tag is used to control the flow of communication by robots and page clawlers. It permits or prevents access to resources and allows or prevents robots from following farther. In this scenario, we enhance indexing by denying robots access to low-value content. In the source code they can be found under <meta name="robots" content="value" /> (W3Schools, 2023).

Reference

W3Schools (2023) HTML <meta> Tag. Available at: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp (Accessed: 06 February 2023).

WordStream (2023) Meta Tags – How Google Meta Tags Impact SEO. Available at: https://www.wordstream.com/meta-tags (Accessed: 06 February 2023).