Meta tags are components of HTML tags that describe the content of a page to search engines. They tell the search engines about the content of a page and the point of contact for search engines. They are short phrases and keywords that are not visible to website visitors but are present in the code of a website. They are important for a marketing strategy as they help website visitors find a website via search engines. For instance, a business sells dog shampoos. Words like ‘dog grooming’ or ‘body wash’ can be used in meta tags. If someone is looking for one of these terms on Google, Google will know that the website of the business is relevant based on the meta tags.
Different types of meta tags
There are different types of meta tags and each have their own purpose. Some important types of meta tags are titles, meta descriptions, canonical tags, open graph tags, and meta keywords among others. The title tag, for instance, Gives the title of a web page to search engines. Canonical tags make the original content of the website specific to the search engines. Given below are some strategies to consider while using meta tags for SEO.
Be aware of the keywords used by competitors
An idea of the meta tags its competitors are using can help a business to understand what tags are driving traffic to their site. There are various tools available that can help to uncover the keywords. More than one website can be compared at the same time and the keywords that competitors are using can be got within seconds.
Use header tags properly
Header tags help to structure a page. They help to elevate user experience and also improves ease of reading. With the help of header tags, search engines can understand what the content of a website is about. For instance, the h1 tag shows the title of a page, or the headline of an article. The tag h2 plays the role of a subheading and breaks up the content. Header tags, however, should not be overused as quality is important. A lot of header tags will not help the SEO of a page. Header tags should break up content in such a way that the main point of each content is displayed effectively.
Use unique meta tags
The right length of a meta tag depends on the message that has to be conveyed. For instance, if the title tags are completely unique, so should the other tags be. The right length of a meta tag can be anything from 120 to 156 characters. What Google chooses to display cannot be controlled, and it can randomly choose some sentences of a copy. Keeping that in mind, it is better to use a short meta description. Ideally, every page should have a different meta tag. If the same meta tag is used repeatedly, a search engine can get the impression that the pages are not unique and hence not important.