TIPS and TRICKS
Meta Tags Explained
by Jerry West
Updated February 10, 2009
Over the years Meta tags have become quite misunderstood and usually used incorrectly on the Internet. With the help of this document a brief explanation of Meta tags will be given, a complete break down of all the Meta tags that we are aware of, and recommendations of which ones you should or shouldn't use for your website.
What are Meta tags? This question gets asked to us all the time. Meta tags are a snippet of informational code that has been located between your <HEAD> </HEAD> tags that are apart of your HTML document you've generated.
There are two known styles/attributes that you'll see for Meta tags. These happen to be:
1. <META HTTP-EQUIV="name" CONTENT="content">2. <META NAME="name" CONTENT="content">
Back in the mid 90s Meta tags were developed to assist in the rapid growth of web pages, but soon after in the late 90s something major happened. Many Webmasters, generally those that ran adult orientated websites, abused the use of Keyword Meta tags. Many unrelated keywords were placed on their site in the Meta tag section, causing their pornographic sites to begin appearing in search results not related to topics such as "Smithsonian".
Eventually the major search engines began discontinuing the use of Meta tags for main criteria when listing sites. Google always refused the use of Meta tags, and now currently only will index Google Meta Tags. There are several searches that do read Meta tags in their own way.
The following list of links will take you to information about each of the individual Meta tags that we offer information on:
Recommended Tags
Meta Content Language (non-US English ONLY)
Meta Content Type
Meta Description
Meta Language (non-US English ONLY)
Optional Tags
Meta Abstract
Meta Author
Meta Copyright
Meta Designer
Meta Google
Meta Keywords
Meta MSN (No ODP)
Meta Title
Not Recommended Tags
Meta Content Script Type
Meta Content Style Type
Meta Distribution
Meta Expires
Meta Generator
Meta MS Smart Tags
Meta Pragma No-Cache
Meta Publisher
Meta Rating
Meta Refresh
Meta Reply-To
Meta Resource Type
Meta Revisit After
Meta Robots
Meta Set Cookie
Meta Subject
Meta VW96.ObjectType
Alright now that you've seen the list of recommended, optional, and not recommended tags lets get more information on each of these. If you'd like to quickly jump to a certain Meta tag select the link from above.
Meta Abstract
Gives a short summary of the description. The Meta Abstract is used primarily with academic papers. The content for this tag is usually 10 words or less.
An example of a Meta Abstract: <META NAME="Abstract" CONTENT="Short description of page">
Recommendation of Meta Abstract: This is an optional Meta tag. It will not assist you with the major search engines. If you have content that is highly specialized, with the use of the Meta abstract tag it will allow search engines that are apart of your field of expertise to index your website correctly. Currently the Meta abstract tag is not apart of Google, Yahoo!, and MSN algorithms.
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The Meta Author tag will display the author of the document. With this Meta tag it will reference the name of the person who developed the HTML/XML document that is being viewed. If you use the Meta Author tag it is recommended to use it with the author's first and last name, but it is not recommended to have the inclusion of the author's email address due to the large increase of Spam. If the author would like to be contacted, it is advised to include a contact form on a HTML page instead.
An example of a Meta Author tag:<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="George Costanza, gcostanza@vandalayindustries.com">
Recommendation of Meta Author tag:The Meta Author tag is an optional Meta tag to use. If you have several individuals contributing to the content of your site include this tag for assistance in tracking the author. The Meta Author tag is not indexed by Google, Yahoo!, or MSN, meaning it will not assist you in search engine rankings, but it is recognized as part of the "Meta Tag Standard."
Read more on Meta Author
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The Meta Content Language tag declares the natural language of the document. This is also known as the Meta Name Language. Robots use this tag to categorize the language of the web page.
An example of a Meta Content Language tag:<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" CONTENT="en-GB">
An example of a Meta Content Language tag: It is advised only to use the Meta Content Language tag if your website is written in non-US English. Currently we have not tested this tag, but we have had reports from our members that it does assist non-US English sites in getting categorized properly by the search engines.
Read more on Meta Content.
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Meta Content Script Type tag is used to specify the default scripting language of the document.
An example of a Meta Content Script Type:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Script-Type" CONTENT="text/javascript">
Recommendations for Meta Content Script Type: It is advised not to use the Meta Content Script Type tag. Search engines do not need this tag to detect scripts as they do this on their own. Browsers also do not use this tag either, as they have other detection methods in place.
Read more on Meta Content.
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The Meta Content Style Type is used to specify the default Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language for the documents.
An example of a Meta Content Style Type tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type" CONTENT="text/css">
Recommendations for Meta Content Style Type tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Content Style Type tag. Search engines do not need to know the style sheet of a document. Web browsers also do not look to the Meta tags for style sheet information.
Read more on Meta Content.
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To declare the character set.The Meta Content Type tag is used to declare the character set of a website. It has become recommended to always use the Meta Content Type tag even if you use a DTD declaration above the Header. If you fail to do so it may cause display problems where as for instance the document uses UTF-8 punctuation characters but is displayed in ISO or ASCII character sets. There are other benefits of using the Meta Content Type tag, but you will need to become a subscriber of our SEO Revolution Newsletter (paid membership) to get the entire scoop of what the Meta Content Type tag can do for your site.
An example of a Meta Content Type tag:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
Recommendations of a Meta Content Type tag: It is recommended to always use the Meta Content Type tag along with using the DTD declaration format from the World Wide Web Consortium. If you fail to do so you may cause display problems. For example the Meta Content Type tag helps properly display the page if the document uses UTF-8 punctuation characters, but is displayed in ISO or ASCII character sets. There are many benefits to using the Meta Content Type tag. To get the entire scoop on the Meta Content Type tags become a paid member and subscribe to our SEO Revolution Newsletter.
Read more on Meta Content Type.
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The Meta Copyright tag is used to include a copyright, trademark, patent, or other information that pertains to intellectual property.
An example of a Meta Copyright tag:
<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright 2008">
Recommendations for a Meta Copyright tag: It is not required to use a Meta Copyright tag. Please be aware that the Meta Copyright tag will not protect your site's content or your intellectual property. Consult your attorney to ensure you are protected properly.
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The Meta Description tag gives a description of the document. The Meta Description tag is a short, plain language description of the document, usually consisting of 20-25 words or less. Search engines that support the Meta Description tag will use the information to publish on their search results page, normally displaying below the Title of your site listing.
An example of a Meta Description tag:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Citrus fruit wholesaler.">
Recommendations of the Meta Description tag: It is recommended to always use the Meta Description tag. Make your Meta Description as compelling as you can, as your description often is the difference between getting your listings clicked in the search results. The Meta Description tag is particularly important if your document has very little text, is a frameset, or has extensive scripts at the top.
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The Meta Designer tag is used to declare the designer of the website.
An example of a Meta Designer tag:
<META NAME="Designer" CONTENT="Art Vandaley">
Recommendations of the Meta Designer tag: The Meta Designer tag is optional to use. Usually web designers who want advertising or to catch people who hijack their designs use the Meta Designer tag. It should be understood that search engines do not support the Meta Designer tag.
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The Meta Distribution tag is used to declare the distribution of your web content. There are three classifications of distribution which consist of:
- Global (the entire web)
- Local (reserved for the local IP block of your site)
- IU (Internal Use, not for public distribution).
An example of a Meta Distribution tag:
<META NAME="Distribution" CONTENT="Global">
Recommendations for the Meta Distribution tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Distribution tag. If you want to have restricted distribution, use the robots.txt tag or your HTAccess file.
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The Meta Expires tag is used to declare the date and time after which the web document should be considered expired.
An example of the Meta Expires tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="expires" CONTENT="Wed, 26 Feb 2004 08:21:57 GMT">
Recommendations for the Meta Expires tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Expires tag. While the Meta Expires tag is good in concept, it is impractical for search engines and not only do search engines not read the Meta Expires tag, but according to my testing, browsers ignore it too. Looking to stop Google from caching your site? Even if you use the Meta Expires tag Google will cache your page. The Meta Expires tag is worthless don't bother with it.
Read more on Meta Expires Tag.
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The Meta Generator tag is used to declare the name and version number of the publishing tool used to create the page. The Meta Generator tag can be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
An example of the Meta Generator tag:
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="FrontPage 4.0">
Recommendations for Meta Generator tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Generator tag. If you have the Meta Generator tag, delete them if possible. Meta Generator tags don't serve no purpose for your pages.
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The Meta Google tag has several options that are exclusive for use with Google. These include:
- Googlebot: noarchive - does not allow Google to display cached content
- Googlebot: nosnippet - does not allow Google to display excerpt or cached content
- Googlebot: noindex - similar to the robots meta element
- Googlebot: nofollow - do not allow Google to pass any PageRank or link popularity to the link served.
Recommendations for the Meta Google tags: The Meta Google tags are optional to use. You generally do not need to use Meta Google tags unless you want Google to do something specific with your site. The Meta Google tag is one of the few Meta tags Google will read, index, and obey.
Read More on Google Meta Tags .
For more info straight from Google, see Google's Remove Page.
Also referenced: meta tags google
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The Meta Language tag is used to declare the language used on the website. Webmasters who wish to declare the primary language of the web page can use the Meta Language tag.
An example of the Meta Language tag:
<META NAME="Language" CONTENT="english">
Recommendation of the Meta Language tag: It is recommended to only use the Meta Language tag for sites in the non-US English languages. No testing has been done in other languages to verify if the Meta Language tag does indeed work.
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The Meta Keywords is used to list keywords that define the content of your site. Keywords are used by search engines to properly index your site in addition to words from the title, document body, and other areas. The Meta Keywords tag is typically used for synonyms and alternates of title words.
An example of the Meta Keywords tag:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="oranges, lemons, limes">
Recommendations for the Meta Keywords tag: It is recommended to use the Meta Keywords tag with caution. Make sure to only use keywords that are relevant to your site. Search engines are known to penalize or blacklist your site for abuse. The Meta Keywords tag also exposes your keywords to your competitors. Five hours of keyword research and your competitor can hijack research within just a few minutes.
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The Meta MS Smart tags were part of a beta test of Internet Explorer that was removed due to negative press and feedback from users. In short, Microsoft would sell keyword phrases, then the Meta MS Smart Tags would allow for those keywords to be highlighted on web pages that would take the user to the advertiser's site. This would mean your site could advertise your competitor's site without your consent.
An example of a Meta MS Smart tags:
<META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" CONTENT="TRUE">
Recommendations for Meta MS Smart tags: It is recommended not to use the Meta MS Smart tags. Microsoft discontinued Meta MS Smart tags technology. If you are working with an SEO firm that demands to insert these tags, quickly find a new SEO company.
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The Meta MSN (No ODP) tag is used for your description in the MSN search results instead of the description used in DMOZ.
An example of a Meta MSN (No ODP) tag:
<META Name="msnbot" CONTENT="NOODP">
Recommendation for Meta MSN (No ODP) tag: It is optional to use Meta MSN (No ODP) tag. If you are unhappy with the description from DMOZ, which most Webmasters are, use the Meta MSN (No ODP) tag. While this is only good for MSNBot, you can sub "Robots" for "MSNBOT" in the Meta MSN (No ODP) tag to be valid for all bots. As of right now, however, MSN is the only search engine using descriptions straight from DMOZ.
Note: Using the Meta MSN (No ODP) tag will not remove the DMOZ listing immediately. It can take up to four weeks.
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The Meta Pragma No Cache tag is used to prevent visitors from seeing a cached version of a specific page. The Meta Pragma No Cache tag forces the browser to pull information from the server each time the page is viewed.
An example of the Meta Pragma No Cache tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
Recommendations for the Meta Pragma No Cache tag: The Meta Pragma No Cache tag has no affect on search engines and is mainly implemented with the intent to help users. For example: If you have a site that changes on a daily basis, the Meta Pragma No Cache tag would ensure that the visitor sees the most recent version of the page.
However, since you are pulling information from the server each time a visitor views the page, the load time will be affected as well as incurring increased server activity.
Google has stated: "The http-equiv values pragma and expires are attempts at bypassing caches without having to set the HTTP headers correctly. These are probably unnecessary uses; any scenario where there is a legitimate reason to limit caching, the author is going to have enough control over the server to send the appropriate headers. In addition, the meta tags can't be considered reliable (e.g. proxies and transparent caches aren't going to honor them)."
In my opinion, it is better to set the HTTP headers correctly. To learn how to do this, view our article (must be an All Access Member of the SEO Revolution).
Note: The above also applies to the Meta Expires Tag.
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The Meta Publisher tag is used to declare the name and version number of the publishing tool used to create the page. The Meta Publisher tag is the same as the Meta Generator tag. Could be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
An example of the Meta Publisher tag:
<META NAME="Publisher" CONTENT="FrontPage 4.0">
Recommendations for the Meta Publisher tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Publisher tag. If you have the Meta Publisher tag, delete them if possible. The Meta Publisher tag serves no purpose for your pages.
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The Meta Rating tag is used to display a content rating similar to the movie rating system (i.e. PG-13).
An example of the Meta Rating tag:
There is not a set form of this tag, nor is there any official statement from the W3C. Some sites recommend using this tag, however, it is just fictitious as the governing body of HTML has no reference to it, and according to our testing, has no merit.
Recommendations for Meta Rating tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Rating tag. The fact that there is not a set form for the Meta Rating tag suggests you would be better off getting a rating from the International International Content Rating Association.
Read more on Meta Rating Tag Explained.
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The Meta Refresh tag is used to specify a delay in seconds before the browser automatically reloads the document or URL specified.
An example of the Meta Refresh tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.domain.com/page.html">
Recommendations for the Meta Refresh tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Refresh tag. Search engines can detect the use of the Meta Refresh tag and they consider it Spam. Penalty is either ignoring the page or banning your site completely from the index. You should use a 301 or 302 redirect instead. To get more information on how to do redirects properly, subscribe to our paid membership and check out the SEO Revolution Newsletter archive.
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Meta Reply To
The Meta Reply To tag is used to harvest email addresses. The Meta Reply To tag is a Spammers tag. The Meta Reply To tag picks up your email address, then hits you fast and hard with offers a plenty.
An example of a Meta Reply To tag:
<meta name="reply-to" content="your.email@address.com" />
Recommendations for the Meta Reply To tag: It is highly recommended not to use the Meta Reply To tag as it is used as a Spammer method.
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The Meta Resource Type tag is used to declare the resource of a page.
An example of a Meta Resource Type tag:
<META name="resource-type" content="document">
Recommendations for the Meta Resource Type tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Resource Type tag. Use the DTD Declaration instead.
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The Meta Revisit After tag is used to inform search engines when to come back and index your site again. It has been stated that the Meta Revisit After tag will boost your site's rankings with search engines that credit fresh pages. This information is false and has no basis.
An example of the Meta Revisit After tag:
<META NAME="Revisit-After" CONTENT="30 days Days">
Recommendations for the Meta Revisit After tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Revisit After tag. Search engines will not obey the Meta Revisit After tag and come back to index your site on their own schedule, not when you tell them to.
Read more on Meta Revisit After
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The Meta Robots tag control search engine robots on a per-page basis. Tell Robots they may traverse the page, but not index it.
An example of the Meta Robots tag:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">
Recommendation for the Meta Robots tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Robots tag as the search engines often ignore this tag. If you need to control the search engine robots, use a robots.txt file or modify your HTAccess file instead. Many people are concerned that if a bot comes to their site through a subpage and not their homepage, the robots.txt file will not be read. This is not true. The robots.txt is read each time a good boy comes to a new domain. You can verify this through your web logs.
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The Meta Set Cookie tag is a cookie used to set a cookie in the user's web browser. If you use an expiration date, the cookie is considered permanent and will be saved to disk (until it expires), otherwise it will be considered valid only for the current session and will be erased upon closing the Web browser.
An example of the Meta Set Cookie tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Set-Cookie" CONTENT="cookievalue=xxx;expires=Wednesday, 21-Oct-98 16:14:21 GMT; path=/">
Recommendations for the Meta Set Cookie tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Set Cookie tag. While the Meta Set Cookie tag was used years ago to set cookies, cookies can now be set and customized very easily. If you need assistance with cookies, our programming staff can assist you for a nominal fee.
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The Meta Subject tag is used to declare the subject of the web site.
An example of the Meta Subject tag:
<META NAME="Subject" CONTENT="Web Page Subject">
Recommendations of Meta Subject tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta Subject tag. Any third party agent, including browsers and search engines, does not support the Meta Subject tag.
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The Meta Title tag is used to declare the title of the page. The Meta Title tag would normally have the same title as contained in the <TITLE></TITLE> tag.
An example of the Meta Title tag:
<META NAME="Title" CONTENT="Page Title Here">
Recommendation for the Meta Title tag: It is recommended to use the Meta Title tag with caution. According to testing, Yahoo! and MSN index the Meta Title tag, but its effect on the algorithm is unknown inconsistent test results.
Read more on the Meta Title.
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The Meta VW96.ObjectType is used to define the purpose of specific pages. Based on an early version of the Dublin Core report, using a defined schema of document types such as FAQ, HOW TO, etc.
Recommendations for the Meta VW96.ObjectType tag: It is recommended not to use the Meta VW96.ObjectType tag. Any search engine or major browsers do not support the Meta VW96.ObjectType tags.
