Resources
Meta tags
What are meta tags?
The meta tag is used by search engines to allow them to more accurately list your site in their indexes. Sometimes. Having the right meta tags in your pages can get them listed with a higher placement in the search engines and allow you to track how effective they are. Many search engines do read them. Keyword phrases that your visitors have typed in to the search engines to find your site should be listed.
What does a meta tag look like?
<META name="description" content="short description here">
<META name="keywords" content="a, list, of, keywords, or phrases">
Meta tags are written by the client (during the beginning stages of the site development), because the client knows their own product/services best, while the webmaster (accent45) takes those meta tags and plugs them into the 'backend' (code that no one ever sees). Descriptions and keywords are needed for each web page of your site. It's up to you if you want a different description for each page. You can use the same keywords for each page also, but make sure to include words that are relevant to the info on that page.
Example using my website info: okay ~
<META name="description" content="accent45 builds websites">
<META name="keywords" content="websites, accent45, custome sites, bellingham">
better ~
<META name="description" content="accent45 - website / graphic design implements content management systems (CMS) allowing the client to update their website">
<META name="keywords" content="design, web, cms, css, layout, web layout, accessibility, usability, portfolio, media, freelance">
The Meta tag in html is not a required tag when you're creating your web pages; many pages don't use the tag at all. If a description tag is not found on your page, the first words of your page copy could be shown in your listing.
Learning to write effective meta tags requires absolutely no programming skills at all, anyone can do it.
Ensure you choose keywords that are relevant to your site and avoid excessive repetition as many search engines will penalize your rankings for attempting to abuse their system. Similar to the Description META Tag, search engines give priority to the first few words in your description, so focus on your main keywords and then elaborate further by using synonyms or other related words.