What Are Meta Tags And Meta Data?

Meta tags and meta data are the extra, sometimes hidden, information that tell more about a web site, how it should be categorised, described and its context.

The title meta tag, for instance, is the name of the web page that appears in the browser. To aid search engine ranking each page should be named with a keyword or phrase and not left to simply state, Untitled.

The title meta tag is one of the elements that search engines home in on when compiling their results. Most search engines give the highest priority to sites whose titles include the searched for words. The lesson here is to ensure every page has a name that includes a keyword.

Another vital piece of meta data is the description meta tag. This consists of a brief summary of the page contents, the short sentence you read before clicking on an individual search result. Leave out superfluous terms such as web, page and site as these contribute nothing to your ranking.