Meta Tags and Search Engine Optimization
There are a large number of META tags, but only a few that are important for search engine optimization.
The Meta Description tag and search engine optimization
The meta description tag is probably the second most important tag that is used by the Internet search engines. Just as getting your page title tag correct is important, so too is getting your meta description tag. The text within the meta description tag appears to be indexed by many of the top search engines. In addition, the first few lines of the description tag are often returned with the search engine results. It is therefore important that your descriptions are concise and relevant to encourage potential visitors to click on the search results listing to view your website.
The Meta Keywords tag and search engine optimization
In the early days of search engines, the meta keywords tag was very important. Unfortunately, the keywords tag was abused and, as a result, the top search engines now ignore this tag. However, the keywords tag may still be useful for the few search engines that do make use of it. When constructing this tag it is best to place your most important keywords at the beginning of the list and each keyword, or key phrase, should be separated by a comma. Do not use hundreds of keywords, but do include common misspellings of relevant words that appear on your page.
Each meta tag should be unique
The meta tags on each page of your website should be unique and each should reflect the specific page content. The search engine spiders will crawl through many pages of a well designed website, and this gives the opportunity for visitors to enter your website at many different pages. In relation to search engine optimization, this means that different pages will achieve a different ranking within the search engines for different keywords.
