The META tag has 3 basic component including META title, META description and META keyword. Though META tag is not an essential item, it should be included in all the websites. The META title is the title of the document.
The META title can comprise the title of the page and name of the site, for example Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers 1888 – Artprintstore.com. You can use all kinds of symbols in the META title. The most common symbols used in the META title are semi colon and dash. Your META title should briefly describe the content of the site accurately. If you are selling something, the META title should write in such as way that captivates the attention of the visitors. When visitors see the META title, they will want to click on the link to find out more. Some people like to put keywords in the META title. It is not a good practice to stuff the title with keywords. Example of keyword stuffed META title is “Pet Dog Store, Dog Toys, Dog Food, and Dog Gadgets – Petdogstore.com”. If you attempt to stuff the META title with keywords, you will find that you won’t rank well in the search engine. It is sufficient to include 1 – 2 keywords in the META title. Your META title should be kept as short as possible. It should not be too long because the search engine won’t list all the words. It only chooses the part that contains the relevant keyword to display.
The META description is used to portray the content of the page. You should write a unique META description for every page. The META description should not be in all CAPS to attract attention. META keywords contain keywords that are pertinent to the page. You can insert 5 keywords in the META keywords with each keyword being separated by comma.
A decade ago, META tag is used to rank a website. Later, people abuse it by stuffing the META tag with a lot of keywords. The search engine company doesn’t want people to spam the META tag so it changes the algorithm. Now, there are many factors for ranking on the search engine. Many people assume that Google don’t use META tag to rank a website anymore. This is not true. META tag is still being used to rank a website if the search engine cannot find relevant keyword. The META keyword and descriptions still have their place in SEO. It is best to include them in website so that you can take the full advantage of the META tag. META tag is useful in websites that uses a lot of flash. Because flash cannot be read by the search engine, websites that are built of flash are not SEO friendly. Flash sites can still be indexed by the search engine but it takes a longer time. It is harder to rank flash sites on the search engine. To make the website SEO friendly, you can include text in the navigational structure and META tag in every single page of your flash site. In this way, the search engine will read the META tag when ranking you in the search result.
