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Advanaced:
Of Robots and Meta Tags
Meta
tags are the equivalent of secret weapons for your web page.
They do not appear when a visitor comes to your web page
but they can be instrumental in the success of your web
site as a whole. One of our free tools will generate and
place basic customized meta tags in your web pages for you.
You can try out this excellent tool by visiting http://www.freeservers.com/cgi-bin/util/meta_tags.
If you
want to go beyond the basic keyword and description meta
tags and have more control over how your page is indexed
there are ways to control which pages in yoyur site are
indexed and how often search engines should check for new
content.
Meta
tags are primarily geared toward getting your web pages
indexed and listed the way that you want them to appear
in the different search engines. These search engines use
programs called "robots" and "spiders"
to hunt around the web for new material to add to their
vast libraries of information. This information is then
displayed when someone visits a search engine and enters
a word or phrase to search for.
Search
engines are the primary means of getting people that you
do not already know to come and visit your web pages. No
serious web page is complete without considering the importance
of search engines and including meta tags designed to work
with their robotic, arachnid agents. We'll show you what
you need to include right here!
Try
the Meta Tag Generator, it's FREE!
What do meta tags look like and where do they go?
Basic meta tags
Advanced meta tags
The big picture
What
do meta tags look like and where do they go?
Here is an example of the composition of a meta tag.
<meta name="some_value" content="some_value">
Meta
tags go in the head section of your web page between the
<head> and </head> tags. Each of your pages
can have it's own set of different or similar meta tags.
If you prefer ease (and who doesn't) then try our free meta
tag tool which will create customized meta tags and place
them in your page for you!
Basic
Meta Tags:
The "Description" meta command.
Here is an example of the tag:
<meta name="description" content="This
site is really cool and contains everything you are looking
for.">
This
tag is designed to tell robots what you want them to say
about your page when a search engine produces your site
in the results of someone's search. Not all search engines
support it but many do, using it as the basis of their entry
regarding your site. For those that do not support it you
are unlikely to be penalized for using it, but be warned
that your description should accurately portray what is
actually contained in your site.
The
"Keywords" meta command.
Here is an example of the tag:
<meta name="keywords" content="cool, web
site, graphics, and links">
This
tag is often used in tandem with the "description"
setting described above. This command is specifically designed
to tell robots what words used in a search that you want
to come up under. For example if your page focuses on flowers
it would be a good idea to include "flowers" as
one of the words in the content property. The same warning
from the "description" applies to this command
also, make sure that your keywords are pertinent to your
site otherwise you may be sorry if an actual person visits
your site to confirm that it is what you state it to be.
Advanced
Meta Tags:
The
"Robots" directive tag.
Here is an example of the tag:
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
This
tag is used to direct the robot visiting your page from
a search engine how to behave with your site. This behavior
can be changed by altering the value of the "content"
property. The possible values are "index, or noindex"
and "follow, or nofollow". These two commands
can be combined but you should never include contrary commands,
such as suggesting both "follow, nofollow" as
this might cause the Internet to break. (Ok, that won't
happen, your command simply will not work and may be ignored
completely.) Here is what each of these values mean.
1. "index" tells the robot to "read"
the page and save information about the words contained
on the page and where the page itself is located (the url.)
2. "noindex" tells the robot NOT to "read"
the page and not to keep track of where it is. This value
is like saying "go away."
3. "follow" tells the robot that you want
it to keep track of the links to other documents that you
may have on your page and to go visit those links after
indexing your page.
4. "nofollow" tells the robot NOT to follow
any links from your page to other documents and thus NOT
to use your page to index other pages that your page links
to.
It is
important to know that not all robots and spiders abide
by your wishes with respect to your page. This may not be
a bad thing though because the more exposure your pages
get from the search engines the more traffic you are likely
to get.
The
"Revisit-after" command ( ... well, request).
Here is an example of the tag:
<meta name="revisit-after" content="30
days">
This
tag is used to "request" that the robot make a
return visit in so many days. This command may not produce
the results you would like but it may help you to keep your
site on the road map of the world wide web over time. Documentation
on this tag is sketchy and it's not known what the original
source of it is but some people swear by it.
The
big picture
The
whole group of tags can be combined into your web page and
might appear as illustrated by this example excerpt from
a web page.
<html>
<head>
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta
name="description" content="This site has
flowers, lots and lots of flowers.">
<meta
name="keywords" content="flowers, lots of
flowers, roses, stems, good smells and stuff">
<meta
name="revisit-after" content="30 days">
</head >
<body>
... so on so forth ...
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