What Are Meta Tags and What Do They Want?

Meta tags are important to understand and use because they provide information about a given web page, which helps search engines to correctly categorize them. Meta tags are inserted into the head (top) part of an HTML document, but are usually not visible to any users visiting the site unless they select “view source.” Since the mid to late 1990s, search engines have relied heavily on meta data to classify web pages and webmasters were quick to realize their commercial contribution to achieving a high ranking in the search engines, thus resulting in a higher volume of traffic to their site.

Meta tags have seen a decline in their effectiveness since the 1990s. This is due partly to the fact that search engine robots have become more sophisticated and also because unscrupulous website placement consultants have manipulated search engine ranking systems with practices such as spam indexing and keyword stuffing of meta elements. While there is no question that search engine optimization can improve search engine ranking, website owners seeking such services should be careful to utilize only reputable providers.

Meta tags are not required when creating web pages and many pages do not have tags at all. If you simply produce your home page and register the URL with a search engine, or several search engines, spiders will eventually find your site and index it. Still, they do move things along among the search engine robots.

Consider using meta tags to increase traffic to your site today.