A beginner's guide to SEO meta tags

 

A beginner's guide to SEO meta tags

META tags improve your web pages and help search engines understand the topic of your content. Often misunderstood, these little tags have a "bad reputation".

For a long time, it was popular to try to trick search engine algorithms by repeating keywords in metadata ( keyword stuffing ). This prompted Google to change their algorithms and rate Meta tags differently.

In this guide, we'll show you how to optimize META tags in a way that improves your SEO. We'll see how META tags have evolved and identify which ones are useful for SEO and which ones are best to avoid.

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What is a Meta tag?

Meta tags are small pieces of HTML code that help describe the content of your web page to Google and other search engines. The word "Meta" is the abbreviation for metadata. This is additional data related to your web page, such as page title, description, and content type. Search engines use meta tag data in their results pages (SERPs).

Check your meta tags and identify issues that are affecting your website's indexability.

Do Meta Tags Have An Impact On SEO?

META tags are still necessary and very useful for SEO today. This has been a staple  of SEO strategies since the beginning of search engine optimization. Although their use and value have evolved over the years, they should not be overlooked.

Meta and HTML tags

Metadata is found at the top of all your web pages and articles. You can easily add your META tag in HTML using a WordPress plugin or a CMS content editor. You just need to insert them in your HTML, so that they become visible to the indexing robots.

What are the most important Meta tags?

To get a good ranking, it's important to use the right tags. These can have a big impact on your rankings, and when used correctly, they improve the user experience.

Meta and Google tags

Each search engine rates tags differently. However, I advise you to follow the tips below. Pay attention to the differences and adapt them to suit your website's needs.

Remember to use your META tags to let Google know who you are and what your content is for. Content such as blog posts, product / service texts, webinars, rich media, etc.

The Best Meta Tags For SEO

1. The title tag

While not technically a meta tag, it is often included when it comes to markup of web pages.

 

This is an HTML tag that consists of a concise description of your web page. It is very important for SEO, ergonomics and the sharing of your pages. The search engine takes this tag into account and displays it on the results page as a clickable title. Your title should be unique, present on all web pages and be between 50 and 60 characters long.

2. The Meta Description

This tag is infamous in the SEO world. Indeed, since 2009 these tags no longer affect the ranking of websites.

The META description has still retained a very important role  : to improve the click-through rate (CTR). This tag promotes your page and is visible when people browse a SERP. That's why a good Meta Description gets more clicks. It's as simple as that.

The Meta Description should be approximately 160 characters long.

3. The viewport tag

We often forget it! In our world where a lot of different devices are used to browse the internet, using a viewport beacon is a must. It allows an optimized experience on all browsers. Its use has become the norm on all modern websites.

Without this tag, search engines will display your web pages the width of a desktop computer. Mobile device users will need to zoom in to be able to read the content.

4. The Robots tag

These tags give specific instructions to crawlers (eg Googlebot). You rarely need it, because search engines do a good job of managing the behavior of bots on their own. However, it is sometimes necessary to give additional instructions.

Many marketers still believe that Meta robots tags are necessary. However, they are really useful when you need to change indexing or link instructions. If omitted, Google will use the default values ​​from index: follow.

Values ​​of the robots tag:

index - show this web page in search results

follow - follow the links on the page

noindex - do not show this web page in search results

nofollow - do not follow links on the page

5. Meta tags for social networks

Add META tags for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to optimize the flow of sharing your content. These tags allow you to specify how your titles, descriptions and images will be displayed on social media.

Optimized content can be delivered and shared more easily. This will give you new inbound links to your content, which has a positive impact on your SEO.

6. The canonical tag

While this is not technically a meta tag, it is often included when tagging web pages. First introduced in 2009, this is one of the great advancements in SEO.

Its purpose is to indicate to search engines that a specific URL is the preferred version of a web page. In marketing parlance, it is also called "canonical URL".

On your website:

https://www.example.com/blog/seo/

https://www.example.com/digital/seo/

These two URLs refer to the same page, they are two ways for crawlers to access the page. In this case, Google may index both URLs, which could lead to confusion.

Example usage: <link rel = "canonical" href = " https://www.example.com/blog/seo/ " />

Result: by using canonical tags, you prevent some content from being considered duplicate content.

Specific use meta tags

These are the META tags which can be useful in specific circumstances and which are not essential for SEO. For example :

The Meta geo tag  : For now, Bing still takes this type of tag into account, but not Google. META geo tags include location name, position (latitude and longitude), and region.

The Language tag  : This tag is necessary when your target is international. You will need to choose the "official" language of your web page.

The Meta refresh tag  : An old method of redirecting a web page. Note that Google doesn't like it and recommends using a 301 redirect instead.

Meta site verification  tag: This tag is also used to  verify your website on Google  or Bing. HTML example

Now it's up to you

We have provided you with an overview of the main tags in order to help you improve your SEO. Select the best ones and use them for all your SEO campaigns. This will allow search engines and users to discover your content.

This is the opportunity for you to show your expertise. The Internet user will realize that your content is the best answer to his search query. You will then obtain a higher "click-through rate" than that of your competitors. More clicks, more visitor traffic and a great win!

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