A meta tag is a tag (that is, a coding statement) in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that describes some aspect of the contents of a Web page. The information that you provide in a meta tag is used by search engines to index a page so that someone searching for the kind of information the page contains will be able to find it. The meta tag is placed near the top of the HTML in a Web page as part of the heading.
There are several kinds of meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the keywords meta tag and the description meta tag. The keywords meta tag lists the words or phrases that best describe the contents of the page. The description meta tag includes a brief one- or two-sentence description of the page. Both the keywords and the description are used by search engines in adding a page to their index. Some search engines also use the description to show the searcher a summary of the page's contents.
Although most search engines also use the contents of a page as a way to determine how to index it, the creator of a Web page should be sure to include meta tags with appropriate keywords and description. Well-written meta tags can help make the page rank higher in search results.
Metatags are for us to define our website to outside users.We can declare title, keywords etc. There are two types of meta tags
- HTTP-EQUIV
- NAME
These tags are equivalent to http,Say for example if u click hyperlink which begins with http:// you are actually asking to transfer using http protocol.In additional what HTTP-EQUIV Metatags does is, it define additional information to be sent to the browser in the http header.This gives the web site creator additional; control over his data.
NAME
The NAME is acvtually used to define information which is to be referenced outside the document.Here is the actuall data is passed to search engines. Metatags must be placed between tags before the body.
Note: On framed pages, be sure and include the metatags on the frameset page and the framed pages. An important note some people copy someones else’s Metatags and they have punished in the court (like trademarks etc.).
Some of them.
Attributes:
http-equiv=”name” content=”value”
Value Description and example
content - language - Specifies the language.
content - script-type - Defines scripting language used.
content - style-type - Defines type of style sheets used.
content - type - Specifies type of data within document.
expires - Expiration date of the document.
ext - cache - Define Netscape external cache.
page - enter - Specifies the transition effect that is to be performed when the page is loaded.
page - exit - Specifies the transition effect that is to be performed when the page is unloaded.
name=”value”
The following is the Name and description of the element that is being set.
Value Description and example
abstract - Define a secondary description.
author - Records the name of the author of the document.
classification - Classify the site into the appropriate category.
copyright - Used to include copyright information in the document.
description - Some search engines pick up this description to show with the results of searches.
