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What are meta tags, exactly? Are they a requirement for your website? In this article, I will explain what meta tags are and how they can benefit you.

*Special note: Since HTML tags sometimes do not show up in Helium articles, I have replaced them with parenthesis. Be sure you change the parenthesis below back to HTML tags, or your code will not function. For clarification: () = <

>.*

Meta tags are basically keywords that tell search engines what your website is about. Meta tags consist of meta keywords and the meta name. The meta keywords section is where you would type in words that describe your website. For example, let's say your website is all about turkeys. The meta keywords you could use to describe your website would be turkeys, Thanksgiving, birds, feathers, wings; etc.

The meta name is similar to the meta keywords with the exception that you need to write a sentence or two about your website. A meta name example for the turkey site would be as follows: This website is dedicated to all things involving wild turkeys. Learn about their habitats, what they eat, and much more!

Meta tags go between the (HEAD) and (/HEAD) tags. I always separate the keywords with a comma, but I've heard that you can use a semicolon if you like. Here's an example of what the keywords and the meta name would look like for the turkey website.

(HTML)
(TITLE)My turkey site.(/TITLE)
(HEAD)
(meta name="keywords" content="turkeys, Thanksgiving, birds, feathers, wings.")
(META NAME="Description" CONTENT="This website is dedicated to all things involving wild turkeys. Learn about their habitats, what they eat, and much more!")
(/HEAD)
(BODY)
This is where the content for your turkey site goes. Pictures, links, videos, text; etc.
(/BODY)
(/HTML)

It's important to note that Google doesn't use meta tags as much as the other search engines(if at all). The reason for this is because people tend to cheat at their meta tag usage. These individuals would add a popular topic name to their meta tags, so that their website would be ranked higher in the search engines.

Thus, these people would get more traffic to their website. But it's no big deal because Google is not the only search engine for the Internet. Plenty of other search engines still use meta tags. But don't set your expectations for your meta tags too high. Meta tags will mostly help your site by better describing it to the major search engines, which will help in attracting your target audience.

As for meta tags being a requirement for your website, they are not. Your website will operate fine without them. However, like I stated above, they could be very beneficial to your website being noticed by the search engines. Especially since there are so many websites that exist these days. With so much competition around you, it can't hurt to add some meta tags to your website.

As you can see, adding meta tags to your website is an easy and painless process. You don't have to use meta tags, but they can be very beneficial. And remember, don't cheat with meta tag usage!

More information about meta tag usage:

http://www.w3schools.com /tags/tag_meta.asp

Learn more about this author, Aaron Conor.
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