By Aisling Blake
Account Executive
There has been much debate on the topic of meta data and the importance of its role in optimising a website for search engines. As one of the tools used in search engine optimisation, meta tags could be deemed to be the most elusive. Search engine gurus are constantly attempting to quantify the degree to which these tags can improve a website's organic ranking in the search engines, and so far there has been no definitive answer.
Meta data can generally be explained as descriptive information about the contents found on the page of a website. Generally, meta data should highlight the main theme of a particular website page, therefore assisting a search engine robot as it crawls the site. In an attempt to confirm or deny the myth about meta data it is important to understand its anatomy first.
Meta data is composed of a variety of meta tags. The three main tags are the title tag, the description tag, and the keyword tag. The title tag appears in the blue bar at the top of the browser window, the description tag provides a general overview of the contents of the page, and the keyword tag contains words that are relevant and important to that page. The latter two are invisible to a normal user. The next section explores each tag in more detail.
It is widely agreed that the title tag is the most important part of a website's meta data. All search engines pay attention to the text that is contained in this tag.
It is also important to have a good title tag for your web page, as this is the piece of text that appears at the top of each listing in the search engine results page. Users may make a decision on visiting a particular site based on what is written in the title tag, and its relevancy to their search.
Following on from the title tag it then becomes more difficult to establish the benefits of having description and keyword tags and what effect, if any, they might have on a website's search engine ranking.
The description tag provides the search engine crawlers with a summary of the content that is on the particular page they are viewing. They are deemed to be considered to some degree by most search engines, and part if not all of the description may be used in a site's listing on the search engine results pages.
In this way, the website owner can manage to some degree how their site is presented in a search engine. Therefore, it is essential that the description tag portrays a clear and concise overview of the content on the web page. However, Google does not use a website's meta description at all, but instead prefers to create its own synopsis of the content contained on the website.
The general consensus with regard to the keyword tag is that it provides a very minor added benefit to a website's search engine ranking. The amount of weight accredited to the keyword tag has dwindled over the years, as it has become less and less credible due to keyword stuffing (spamming of keywords) and the high incidence of repetition and irrelevancy throughout the keyword tag.
There is also another meta tag that is often not considered - the robots tag. This tag is very important when it comes to providing search engine crawlers with directions and guidance on how to view and index a website. By using the robots tag the search engine robots can be told not to visit certain areas of the site.
For example, certain areas of a website may require a log-in and password to gain access. Although search engine robots cannot physically enter these details there have been some instances when these robots have managed to bypass this security measure and have accessed areas that contain private information. Using a command in the form of a robots tag that deters robots from entering these pages is an added protection measure and will ensure that no bypass occurs. It is important to remember that robots tags are not necessary if a robots.txt file is already being used for the site.
In summary, it really is all about preference when it comes to meta tags. The title tag is undeniably significant, with the description tag close behind. However, with regard to the keyword tag its usefulness is far less. In this way, its usage is a matter of choice, paying careful attention not to repeat or include keywords that are not applicable to the page it describes. Perhaps a general mantra would be to include the keyword tag just in case. Anything that can contribute in some way, no matter how minute, to boosting a site's search engine organic ranking, without having a detrimental effect on it, has to be worth the attention.
