What is meta tag? It is a special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead, they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is updated, what the page is about, and which keywords represent the page's content. Many search engines use this information when building their indices. Here is a list of the most common used meta tags in the following page.
Where we have to put meta tags?
You must put your meta tags in head section of the html page.
Meta tags list:
<meta name="description" content="website description here">
Your website description
<meta name="keywords" content="your keywords here">
Most used words in your website undefinedfor search engine indexing)
Most search engines allow around 10 keywords
<meta name="language" content="english">
The language your website is in
<meta name="author" content="Aravind">
The name of the website creator
<meta name="email" content="buddhaaravind@gmail.com">
Your email address
<meta name="copyright" content="© 2008-2010 techaravind">
Copyright information
<meta name="robots" content="NOFOLLOW">
Controls search engine robots on a per-page basis
NOINDEX = prevents anything on the page from being indexed
NOFOLLOW = prevents the crawler from following the links
on the page and indexing the linked pages
NOIMAGEINDEX = prevents the images on the page from
being indexed but the text on the page
can still be indexed
NOIMAGECLICK = prevents the use of links directly to the
images, instead there will only be a link
to the page
<meta name="revisit-after" content="30 days">
Tells the search engines when to re-index your site
<meta name="expires" content="May 25, 2009">
The date your website will expire undefinedsearch engines
will stop indexing your site after this date)
<meta name="rating" content="general">
The rating of your website's content
undefinedGeneral; Mature; Restricted; 14 Years)
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
the content type of your website
undefinedthis tag should always be used)
<meta http-equiv="Window-target" content="_top">
Specifies the named window of the current page; can be used
to stop a page appearing in a frame with many browsers
_blank = always opens a new window
_self = opens in the current window
_top = the uppermost window available
_parent = the window immediately above the current window
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
Specifies the action of cache agents. Possible values:
Public = may be cached in public shared caches
Private = may only be cached in private cache
no-cache = may not be cached
no-store = may be cached but not archived
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10">
Specifies a delay in seconds before the browser
automatically reloads the web page
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="3;url=http://techaravind.blogspot.com">
Redirects the user to the specified website
after a specified amount of time
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">
Prevents Internet Explorer 6 from turning certain words or phrases
on your page into links that go to an advertisers website
Where we have to put meta tags?
You must put your meta tags in head section of the html page.
Meta tags list:
<meta name="description" content="website description here">
Your website description
<meta name="keywords" content="your keywords here">
Most used words in your website undefinedfor search engine indexing)
Most search engines allow around 10 keywords
<meta name="language" content="english">
The language your website is in
<meta name="author" content="Aravind">
The name of the website creator
<meta name="email" content="buddhaaravind@gmail.com">
Your email address
<meta name="copyright" content="© 2008-2010 techaravind">
Copyright information
<meta name="robots" content="NOFOLLOW">
Controls search engine robots on a per-page basis
NOINDEX = prevents anything on the page from being indexed
NOFOLLOW = prevents the crawler from following the links
on the page and indexing the linked pages
NOIMAGEINDEX = prevents the images on the page from
being indexed but the text on the page
can still be indexed
NOIMAGECLICK = prevents the use of links directly to the
images, instead there will only be a link
to the page
<meta name="revisit-after" content="30 days">
Tells the search engines when to re-index your site
<meta name="expires" content="May 25, 2009">
The date your website will expire undefinedsearch engines
will stop indexing your site after this date)
<meta name="rating" content="general">
The rating of your website's content
undefinedGeneral; Mature; Restricted; 14 Years)
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
the content type of your website
undefinedthis tag should always be used)
<meta http-equiv="Window-target" content="_top">
Specifies the named window of the current page; can be used
to stop a page appearing in a frame with many browsers
_blank = always opens a new window
_self = opens in the current window
_top = the uppermost window available
_parent = the window immediately above the current window
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache">
Specifies the action of cache agents. Possible values:
Public = may be cached in public shared caches
Private = may only be cached in private cache
no-cache = may not be cached
no-store = may be cached but not archived
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="10">
Specifies a delay in seconds before the browser
automatically reloads the web page
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="3;url=http://techaravind.blogspot.com">
Redirects the user to the specified website
after a specified amount of time
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true">
Prevents Internet Explorer 6 from turning certain words or phrases
on your page into links that go to an advertisers website