HTML_Guru 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2005 (edited) So, you've got your beginning page started, your homepage is defined, neat, and it looks like everyone will love it - STOP. Do you really think your site will be even accidently view by anyone, even if you do have a bought domain?! Don't kid yourself; the fact of the matter is, you're just one infantesimle speck in the universe of much greater websites than yours. Don't worry, though - I got your back. Here, I'm gonna explain what meta tags are, and what they're used for. I'm also going to show how to utilize them for your site, to increase your traffic.What are Meta Tags/What are they Used for?Meta tags are HTML tags which are used to identify your site. More specifically, as an example, meta tags will give your site at least the slim chance of being caught by the search engine crawlers*, which are, in a sense, lazy; they barely want to look at your site, they just want a "superficial" look; hence, the meta tags.How do I Add them to My Site?To add them to your site, first realize this form: <html><head><title>YOUR TITLE HERE</title></head><body>YOUR MAIN TEXT HERE</body></html> Meta tags fit in there right after the TITLE tag and before the end of the HEAD tag:<html><head><title>YOUR TITLE HERE</title><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=YOUR UNICODE HERE" /><meta name="generator" content="YOUR GENERATOR HERE" /><meta name="description" content="YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE" /><meta name="author" content="YOUR NAME HERE" /><meta name="reply-to" content="YOUR SITE/MAIN E-MAIL HERE" /><meta name="title" content="YOUR SITE TITLE HERE" /></head><body>YOUR MAIN TEXT HERE</body></html> I'll explain some of the confusing meta tags:UNICODE: Unicode is the necessary for identifying the specific set of characters that you use; sites without them will result in browsers using a default unicode.GENERATOR: Generator is simply the program you used to create your HTML page; Stone's WebWriter, wysiwyg editors (though you might need the name of that editor), and others could fall into this category.DESCRIPTION: C'mon, really? Do you really need me to tell you that description just implies the details of your site; what it's about?! Get a grip people!AUTHOR: I'm not even explaining this one...REPLY-TO: Just your e-mail that you can be reached at.TITLE: The title of your site, jeez...There you go; those were just some of the meta tags you can add to ultimately create more traffic to your site. Ask around, I'm sure you'll find some other useful tags to spice your site up.Go for it...---------------------------------------crawlers*: simply put, the "robots" that anally search your site to identify; that's where my "meta tag" deal fits in. H**l, you could "loophole" the crawlers with incorrect data - might be a bit difficult though...-------------------------------------- Edited November 24, 2005 by miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OpaQue 15 Report post Posted September 10, 2005 Nice HTML META Tag tutorial. Will be really useful :-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sarah81 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2005 Mmm ... META tags - some of my favorite HTML right there.Excellent job on the tutorial. But I have one question: do search engines still do much with META KEYWORD tags? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HTML_Guru 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2005 In actuality, yes. It does, as a matter of fact, way more towards getting your site noticed and added to search engines than without meta tags altogether. And of course, you can also buy higher search enginge positions. Yeah, you go ahead and dish out some $700 for that... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vujsa 0 Report post Posted September 11, 2005 Well, many search engines pay much less attention to meta descriptions now than in the past because of faulst descriptions. Google doesn't pay any attention to the meta tags. Meta tages if accurate for your website will help on smaller link indexes and search engines. I have a small link indexing script tat uses the meta description as the link description.Setting your meta tags is a very good idea even if the larger search engines pay less atttention to them now for many reasons. I recommend using meta in you website.vujsa Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Logan Deathbringer 0 Report post Posted September 11, 2005 I have, in the past, submitted my site to many of the larger Search engins such as google and without meta tags I didn't even get listed in even the most obscure ways that you can get listed...such as just typing in your site url. Once I put in meta descriptions and keywords and was crawled again I was listed, sort of-had to type in my url into the search box and got a list of my pages..lol. So I don't know if having meta tags did anything for me but from what I just described it would seem that they did.Just thought I would add my experiances here in hopes that they will help someone else in the future. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
minnieadkins 0 Report post Posted October 9, 2005 I agree with the above post. In my experience yahoo and altavista both require meta tags (for small sites) in order to be anywhere in the first page or two of results. Nice tut. A lot of these are fairly useful in everyday coding. =) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted November 15, 2005 Hi to all. Just visiting for a bit from Xisto. Trying to improve my Html knowledge.I'm not new, but far from 'experienced' like most of you folks in Html. I have written a couple of sites/pages and each one builds upon what I've learned from the last one. Sound familiar?Anyways, thanks for the information about meta-tags. Now could someone post a link for a site that lists out all the meta-tags available? There were some in the tutorial above which I never thought would be there, yet there they are. Most of the sites I have found discuss the typical ones and their uses, so what I am asking for is a site that is 'definitive' in the listing of available meta-tags. Please don't reccomend googling for it. I got lost in cyber-space last time I tried that search.Thanks for any help you might make available. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ntt 0 Report post Posted November 23, 2005 Thanks for the META Tag tutorial it helped :)But I have a very quick question is there a limit as to how much or how long your description is?Because I've looked at some other sites META Tags and they have non ending descriptions with as many words they fit on there, kind of like keywords.Does that really help getting you the top place in the searches? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
abhiram 0 Report post Posted November 25, 2005 Jun 25 2018, 05:32 AM OMFG ... That's HTML_Guru from the future !!! How is life in the future? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dhanesh1405241511 0 Report post Posted November 25, 2005 LOL, as m^e put it .. it was the "Computer Ghost" .. this was the first time i've seen this kind of thing happening .. NO ! ITS NOT FUNNY *lol* ... so did every one get effected or only Hosted members and not Mods ?RegardsDhanesh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HTML_Guru 0 Report post Posted November 25, 2005 Ooohh, I am the ghost of HTML_Guru... and I have come to haunt the forums of Xisto... ooohh... ! Hmm, well, that is weird; I didn't notice that myself... Oh, and now, let's get back to my great tutorial here; keep the compliments coming... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
troykid 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2005 do you have any suggestions in a html program? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HTML_Guru 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2005 troykid, As a matter of fact, I do. My two favorite choices would have to be Stone's WebWriter and HTML-Kit. While Stone's WebWriter is slightly outdated, it is a much more "ease-of-use" tool than HTML-Kit; a much better choice for beginners. However, both are free and can be downloaded. The download page for Stone's WebWriter is: http://www.webwriter.dk/english/download.htm The download site for HTML-Kit is: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/ Hope that helps! P.S. From now on, try to keep questions and suggestions to a more relevant manner; just a heads-up, that's all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twitch 0 Report post Posted November 27, 2005 (edited) Great tutorial Guru. Additional information: Although you are not limited to the number of meta tags that you can put in, it is a good idea to keep them to about 4 or 5. Anymore, and your source will become too heavy.The major 4 you should count on are: AUTHOR, DESCRIPTION, KEYWORDS and UNICODE. These are the ones that the search engines (that still use meta system) look for mainly. Additional meta tags are for additional information.You are not restricted to what type of meta name is put. For example, you may want to put geo.position as a meta name and give the co-ordinates of your country in the contents. Or, you might want to put dedicated.to and in the contents put the persons name who you are dedicating the page/site to. Note, that these will not be read by any (known) search engine.I personally stick with the four fundamental meta's - AUTHOR, DESCRIPTION, KEYWORDS and UNICODE, as the less clutter in my files, the better. Misc Information: DESCRIPTION - Keep this thing short. A simple one liner will surfice. Remember, that people don't want to see irrelevant information, they just want a quick text snapshot of your site. For example, my personal site description would be: The online home of Michael Land, web designer, developer and spork extroardinaire. And that would be it, as it provides the information.KEYWORDS - Again, try to keep it to a minimum, and only put the commonly used words relating to your site into it. For example, I would not put "exasperatingly good" into my keywords, as who would use that and how frequently. Keep keywords as relevant as possible, you will only gain respect from it. Edited November 28, 2005 by HTML_Guru (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
