Search Engine Optimisation Meta Tags: A Comprehensive SEO Guide

Meta tags are a crucial aspect of search engine optimisation, and understanding how they work can make a significant difference in your website's visibility.

Google's algorithm uses meta tags to understand the content of a webpage.

A well-crafted meta tag can increase the chances of your page being crawled and indexed by search engines.

Meta tags are not visible to users, but they play a vital role in helping search engines understand your webpage's content.

Here's an interesting read: Coding Tags for Html

Meta tags are small snippets of text that help search engines understand the content of a webpage. They're like a brief summary of what your page is about.

In the past, meta tags were used to deceive search engines, but today they're used to provide accurate and useful information. This is because search engines have become smarter and can detect manipulative tactics.

A meta description is a type of meta tag that summarizes the content of a webpage. It's usually 155-160 characters long and appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) as a snippet of text.

Meta keywords are another type of meta tag that lists the keywords associated with a webpage. However, they're no longer used by most search engines, including Google.

If this caught your attention, see: Text Html Style Tag

Optimizing meta tags is crucial for search engine optimization (SEO). You can use Site Audit to check for common issues with your meta tags. It's also essential to use meta tags correctly to help search engines understand, index, and display your content.

A well-written meta description can encourage users to click on your link instead of scrolling past. Keep it concise, aiming for around 105 characters to avoid truncation. Use your target keyword naturally in the meta description, and include a call-to-action to motivate clicks.

Here are some tips to help you create effective meta descriptions:

Google rewrites meta descriptions in about 70% of cases. To figure out what to write in your meta description, do some competition research and look up how your top-ranking competition fills out their own descriptions. Give each page a unique meta description that clearly reflects what value the page carries.

Recommended read: On Page Search Engine Optimisation

Meta tags are a crucial part of search engine optimization, and there are several types to consider. The most common type is the title tag, which provides a brief summary of the page's content in 55-60 characters.

The description tag is another essential meta tag, providing a longer summary of the page's content in 155-160 characters. This tag is often displayed in search engine results pages.

The keyword tag, also known as the meta keywords tag, is a type of meta tag that lists the page's most important keywords. However, its effectiveness is debated, and it's not always clear if it's used by search engines.

Related reading: Self Closing Tag Html

Using the meta robots tag effectively is crucial for your site's presence in search results. You need to understand the syntax and values you can use in this tag.

The meta robots tag has several values, including index, noindex, follow, and nofollow. These values determine how search engine bots crawl and index your page.

Index tells bots to index the page, while noindex tells them not to. Follow tells bots to crawl links on the page, and implies you vouch for them, whereas nofollow tells bots not to crawl links and no endorsement is implied.

You can combine these values in various ways, such as using noindex, nofollow, or none, which is the same as noindex, nofollow. Not setting a meta robots tag is equivalent to index, follow.

Here are the values you can use in the meta robots tag:

Heading tags are HTML tags used to identify different sections of a page's content and act as mini-titles for different parts. They can be crucial for text and content organization, making it easier for search engines to read and understand the content.

Proper usage of H1 tags has been emphasized in many industry studies, and while H2-H6 tags are considered less important for search engines, they can still be valuable, especially with the introduction of passage indexing in 2021. Google can now index and rank a part of a page if the query matches with, say, the H3 heading and the paragraph it is related to.

Additional reading: Gift Tags

Heading tags should be taken seriously, and utilizing them certainly adds up to the architecture of the content. For users, headings are like anchors in a wall of text, navigating them through the page and making it easier to digest.

To optimize headings, keep them relevant to the chunk of text they describe and avoid headings like "Chapter 1… Chapter 2… Chapter 3…". Don't overuse the tags and the keywords in them, and keep it readable for users.

Here are some best practices for using heading tags:

The canonical link tag is a way of telling search engines which version of a page you consider the main one and would like to be indexed by search engines and found by people.

Google treats each URL with different parameters as unique, but they all serve the same content, so how does Google know which one it should index and serve in SERPs? The answer is a canonical meta tag.

Google typically respects the canonical meta tag, but it's a hint rather than a rule, meaning Google might still choose a different version.

Using a rel=canonical for duplicate content helps Google consolidate all your efforts and pass the link signals from all the page's versions to the preferred one.

A canonical tag is especially useful when you have multiple URLs with UTM tracking parameters like https://www.example.com/?utm_source=daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blast-01, which Google treats as unique.

The selected URL gets crawled more frequently, while the others are being left behind, making it easier to track performance stats associated with the content.

Another benefit is that canonicalizing a page makes it easier to track performance stats associated with the content.

The canonical meta tag should have the same value as the og:url, which is used to control how a page would look when shared on social media.

Meta tags are crucial for search engine optimisation, and their placement can make a big difference.

You can add meta robots tags in WordPress using Yoast's advanced settings.

For meta viewport tags, you don't necessarily need to set the content attribute to width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, but it's the most common and correct implementation for most pages.

Meta tags are a crucial part of search engine optimization (SEO), and following best practices can make a significant difference in how your website appears in search results.

Use unique title tags for each page, keeping them under 60 characters, and including your target keyword where it makes sense. Avoid generic and vague titles, and create something click-worthy but not clickbait.

Here are some key meta tag best practices to keep in mind:

Remember, meta tags play a significant role in how search engines understand and display your content.

Meta tags are a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO). They help search engines understand the content and structure of your web pages, which can improve your site's visibility and ranking.

To create effective meta tags, keep your title tags under 50-60 characters to avoid truncation in search engine results pages (SERPs). This will ensure that users can read the whole meaning of your title.

Incorporate the primary keyword for the page early in the title to align with search queries. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as this can negatively impact your site's ranking.

A well-written meta description can improve your organic click-through rate (CTR). It should closely match a user's search query and provide a compelling snapshot of your page content.

Use a unique meta description for each page to avoid duplication, which can confuse users and make it harder for search engines to differentiate your content.

Expand your knowledge: Google Keyword Ranking Check

Social media sharing can be a powerful way to increase visibility and referral traffic from platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter).

You can control how your webpages look on social media by using Open Graph tags, such as "og:title", "og:description", and “og:image.”

These tags can make your content more appealing and clickable, which can lead to increased visibility and referral traffic from social media.

While Open Graph meta tags don't impact how Google sees or displays your site in search results, they are useful for improving how your linked content looks on social media.

Image alt attributes are a crucial part of meta tag best practices. They provide a written description of an image, which can be displayed to visitors if the image can't be loaded.

According to research, 60% of consumers will likely click on a website link when an image appears in their search results. This is why optimizing images on your page is essential for ranking on SERPs.

Image alt attributes assist users with accessibility by ensuring that everyone understands your images, including those with visual impairment. They also contribute to SEO by providing context to search engines since crawlers can't see images.

Optimize important images, such as products or infographics, for Google Images search. This will help you rank in Google Images.

Here are some best practices for writing alt text:

Remember, the importance of relevance is key. The alt text, titles, and captions need to be relevant to the image, and the image itself should be placed in its proper relevant context.

Explore further: Next Js Image Search

Google is well-known for its severe antipathy to manipulative linking tactics, and it doesn’t get any less smart at detecting them.

By default, all hyperlinks are followed, and when you place a link on your site, you basically “cast a vote of confidence” to the linked page. This can be a problem if the linked page is untrusted or spammy.

Adding a nofollow attribute to a link instructs search engines’ bots not to follow the link (and not to pass any link equity). In HTML, the nofollow link attribute looks like this:

Google has introduced two more options to specify a nofollow link: rel=“sponsored” for paid links and rel=“UGC” for user-generated content like forum comments.

You should set the following kinds of links to nofollow:

You can diagnose and fix common meta robots mistakes using Google Search Console's Coverage report. This report helps you identify issues with noindexed pages blocked by robots.txt, rogue meta noindex tags, and rogue meta nofollow tags.

To fix these issues, check the "Valid with warnings" tab for "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" warnings and remove either the robots.txt block or meta robots noindex tag. You can also check the "Excluded" tab for pages "Excluded by 'noindex' tag" and remove the robots meta tag from any pages that should be indexed.

To check for rogue meta robots nofollow tags, crawl your site with Ahrefs' Site Audit and check the Indexability report for "Nofollow page" warnings. Remove the tag unless you specifically want search engines not to crawl the links on the page.

Take a look at this: Remove Safe Search

Diagnosing meta tag issues can be a bit of a challenge, but don't worry, I've got you covered.

Most websites use either UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 character encoding, and UTF-8 is generally the better choice.

You can check for pages on your site that don't use UTF-8 encoding using Ahrefs' Site Audit, specifically in the Page Explorer with the right settings.

You might enjoy: Html Meta Http-equiv Content-type Content Text Html Charset Utf-8

If the search returns any results, check each of them manually for character encoding issues.

There are three common mistakes with meta robots: noindexed pages blocked by robots.txt, rogue meta noindex, and rogue meta nofollow.

You can check for the first two issues using the Coverage report in Google Search Console.

To find indexed pages that may be set to meta robots noindex, hit the "Valid with warnings" tab and look for "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" warnings.

To find rogue meta robots noindex tags, hit the "Excluded" tab and look for pages "Excluded by 'noindex' tag".

Here are the common meta robots mistakes and how to check for them:

Because most CMS' and themes set the viewport automatically, tag-related issues are uncommon on most modern websites.

However, you can still check for issues using the Mobile Usability report in Google Search Console.

This shows pages with usability issues on mobile devices, and if the lack of a viewport meta tag is the cause, it will show the "Viewport not set" error.

To find meta refresh redirects on your site, you can crawl your site with Ahrefs' Site Audit and check the Internal pages report. Look for the "Meta refresh redirect" error.

Not all browsers support meta refresh tags, which can cause problems for users. This is one reason why it's generally best to avoid using them.

You can also use Ahrefs' Site Audit to find meta refresh redirects, specifically by checking the "Internal pages" report for the "Meta refresh redirect" error.

If you do find meta refresh redirects on your site, it's best to replace them with 301 or 302 redirects where possible.

The return on investment for meta tags is crucial for search engine optimization (SEO). Google supports numerous meta tags, each serving a specific purpose.

The description meta tag provides a short description of the page, which can be used in the search results snippet. A well-crafted description can improve click-through rates and drive more traffic to your website.

The robots meta tag controls how search engines crawl and index your pages. You can use "noindex" and "nofollow" to prevent those actions, or let search engines default to "index" and "follow".

To prevent Google from providing an automatic translation of your page in search results, use the notranslate meta tag. This is especially useful for websites with sensitive or technical content.

Here are some key meta tags to consider:

Remember to test your website on various devices for compatibility and prioritize user experience with smooth and adaptable layouts.

The maximum number of meta tags allowed per page is 100, but it's recommended to keep it under 20 to avoid clutter.

Having too many meta tags can slow down page loading times and negatively impact user experience.

The "name" attribute in meta tags is used to identify the type of metadata being specified, such as "description" or "keywords".

This attribute is crucial for search engines to understand the purpose of each meta tag.

Schema markup is a technique for organizing data on web pages that search engines recognize. It's a great boost to user experience, carrying huge SEO value, improving content understanding, and helping get into SERP features.

Having a structured schema markup is essential for ecommerce sites, which need to add product schema markup on product pages to avoid having their snippet lost. Most popular content management systems, especially ecommerce ones like Shopify, have structured data built-in by default.

A "semantic web" is a "meaningful web" where search engines focus on concepts behind keywords and relationships between them. Structured data markup helps search engines understand what certain words relate to.

To implement schema markup, study available schemas on schema.org, create a map of your most important pages, and decide on the concepts relevant to each. Implement the markup carefully using tools like Structured Data Markup Helper, and thoroughly test it to ensure it's not misleading or added improperly.

Assigning schema tags to page elements makes SERP snippets rich in information that's helpful and appealing to users. This can include details like reviews, ratings, events, and product information, which increase click-through rates and reduce bounce rates, positively impacting your ranking.

The rel="canonical" link tag is a powerful tool for preventing duplicate content issues in search engine indexing. It helps specify which content is the main one and should be indexed when the same or similar content is available under different URLs.

Adding a rel="canonical" tag to a page tells search engines to focus there, preventing duplicate pages from appearing on search results. This is especially useful for online stores with similar product pages.

To get the most out of the rel="canonical" link tag, it's essential to align it with hreflang tags for international SEO. This ensures that search engines understand the canonical version of a page, even when it's available in multiple languages.

Don't make the mistake of indicating different URLs as canonical for the same page. This can lead to confusion for search engines and may result in duplicate content issues.

Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind: