In this article, we learn what are HTML Meta tags and why we use HTML Meta tags and what are the common HTML Meta tags that can be used on a webpage.
What are HTML Meta Tags?
HTML Meta tags are used to provide metadata about a webpage, such as its description and keywords, which can be used by search engines to understand the content of the webpage and improve its search rankings.
The most commonly used Meta tags include the “description” and “keywords” tags, but there are many other types of Meta tags that can be used, such as “viewport” and “robots”. These tags are placed within the head section of an HTML document.
Common HTML Meta Tags
Below are a few examples of common HTML Meta tags –
- Description Meta tag – The “description” Meta tag is used to provide a short summary of the content of the webpage. It is often used by search engines to display a snippet of text in the search results.
Example –
<meta name="description" content="geekstutorials.com site
provides information about computer science technology.">
- Keyword Meta Tag – The “keywords” Meta tag is used to provide a list of keywords that are relevant to the content of the webpage. These keywords can be used by search engines to understand the content of the page and improve its search rankings.
Example –
<meta name="keywords" content="How to write code, Computer science,
how to guide">
- Robots Meta tag – The “robots” Meta tag is used to control how search engines index and follow the links on a webpage. It can be used to tell search engines not to index a page or not to follow the links on a webpage.
Example –
<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
- Viewport Meta tag – The “viewport” Meta tag is used to control the layout of a webpage on mobile devices. It can be used to set the width and scaling of the webpage on mobile.
Example –
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
If you open any webpage on the internet you will find these HTML meta tags inside the head section of the page.
These are the most common examples of HTML meta tags, there are many more that can be used to provide additional information about a webpage.
Why do we use HTML Meta tags?
Below are some of the main reasons to use HTML meta tags –
- SEO: Meta tags such as “description” and “keywords” can be used to provide information about the content of a webpage to search engines, which can help improve the page’s search rankings.
- Page description and preview: The “description” meta tag can be used to provide a short summary of the content of a webpage, which is often used by search engines to display a snippet of text in the search results.
- Control indexing and crawling: Meta tags such as “robots” can be used to control how search engines index and follow the links on a webpage.
- Mobile optimization: Meta tags such as “viewport” can be used to control the layout of a webpage on mobile devices.
- Social media integration: Meta tags such as “og:image” and “og:title” can be used to provide information about a webpage for social media platforms.
- Refresh and Redirect: Meta tags such as “refresh” and “redirect” can be used to automatically refresh or redirect a webpage after a certain amount of time.
- Language: Meta tags such as “lang” can be used to indicate the language of a webpage.
These are some examples of the benefits of using HTML meta tags. It’s important to note that not all meta tags are necessary, it depends on the webpage’s purpose and the information you want to provide.
Conclusion
The html meta tags are important for search engines to identify content on the internet. I hope now you are able to use these html meta tags on your site.