When you hear the word “Meta tags” what comes to mind? Description, keywords for SEO, however there are lots other meta tags that one can use. The common use of Meta tags is to simply provide a description of the page for the purpose of the search engines. This can be done via the meta name=description tag. The description tag will offer around 400 characters or less to be added as the description of the page. This page is then shown below the linked title. This is very important, as a good description tag can bring in lots of traffic by tempting the users to click through to your site.
Now the related meta tag is simply as follow, meta name=keywords tag. This will enable the webmaster to write down all the keywords that are related to the page content. There is a debate that is on-going on the importance of this tag as some search engines use this tag to populate their indexed while others simply overlook it.
Lastly, the final meta tag that is often used is the Meta refresh tag. In this tag, the user browsing the web will simply be redirected to a new URL or in some cases the current page gets refreshed and there is provision of dynamic content.
Debate on Meta Tags
Some SEO experts believe that a web page can be posted if it is proven to be readable as it will still be found by those search engines that do not give much importance to meta tags at all. Even we have noted that many search engines simply ignore the keywords meta tag. In this case, they simply grab the best possible text from your page and place it as description. We at Lowcostseo still advise our customers and all the webmasters to take some time out and write a Keyword meta tag as in the long run it will only be beneficial to your business.
Many SEO experts will recommend using the meta description tag and so do we, however we will never tell you to skip rest of the process. With limited time available during the day to day running of a website, one needs to utilize their time wisely in order to optimize their website in the best possible way for all the major search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google!.
Try doing a test today, optimize two pages where in one you follow the full process and in the other you simply optimize the meta description tag. This way you will get a better understanding if you want to follow using other meta tags or simply just one meta tag. After all you have to manage you time in the most efficient way as possible. Many people have discovered that you do not really need them but we suggest everyone is different and if you have the time then there is no harm in trying and optimizing it.