What is Meta Tag ?

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Here are several definitions of Meta Tag :

Def # 1 - Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page, after the title tag. In the context of search engine optimization, when people refer to meta tags, they are usually referring to the meta description tag and the meta keywords tag.

The meta description tag and the meta keywords tag are not seen by users. Instead, these tags main purpose is providing meta document data to user agents, such as search engines. In addition to the well-known meta description and meta keywords tags, there are other useful meta tags, including the meta http-equiv tag, meta refresh tag, the meta robots tag, the meta copyright tag, and the meta author tag, etc. These tags are used to give web browsers and search engine spiders directions or data on various information.

Def # 2 - A metametameta tag is a line of HTML coding that contains metadata about a webpage. MetaMetaMeta tagtagtag information doesn't change how the page looks; it won’t be seen by the website viewer, unless they are viewing your source code. There are two common types of metametameta tags — metametameta description tags and metametameta keywords tags.

MetaMetaMeta description tags describe, in some way, the webpage. For instance for this wiseGEEK article page, we might use “everything you want to know about metametameta tags.” The metametameta keywords tagtagtag lists other words that a visitor might be searching for, like metametameta tags, metametameta tagtagtag, HTML and metametameta tags, tags, SEO.

Def # 3 - A meta tag is a tag (that is, a coding statement) in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that describes some aspect of the contents of a Web page. The information that you provide in a meta tag is used by search engines to index a page so that someone searching for the kind of information the page contains will be able to find it. The meta tag is placed near the top of the HTML in a Web page as part of the heading.

There are several kinds of meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the keywords meta tag and the description meta tag. The keywords meta tag lists the words or phrases that best describe the contents of the page. The description meta tag includes a brief one- or two-sentence description of the page. Both the keywords and the description are used by search engines in adding a page to their index. Some search engines also use the description to show the searcher a summary of the page's contents.

Although most search engines also use the contents of a page as a way to determine how to index it, the creator of a Web page should be sure to include meta tags with appropriate keywords and description. Well-written meta tags can help make the page rank higher in search results.