Meta tags are bits of text that describe a page’s content in the page code. They don’t appear on the website page itself so they are invisible to a website user, but vital to telling search engines what a web page is about. Meta tags are placed in the <head> section of an HTML document.
Metas were previously considered a vital ranking factor – until people start abusing them to position themselves above the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). After that, Google dissociated meta-tags from ranking factors. But that does not mean they are not important anymore. Meta tags still play an important SEO role.
Meta tags are the hidden words in your code. People visiting your website will not be able to see them. Meta tags are a way to hide words in your web pages for search engines. Search engines always read them to get a simple summarization of what your website is about and find your keywords.
There are basically three important parts of metas:
1. Title
The title tag is the text of the title displayed in search engine listings. Though it’s not necessarily a meta tag, But it works the same way.
<title> Text title here </ title>
2. Description
The meta description tag allows you to place the summary of your site. This is where you define your site and what you offer. This should not be too long, as search engines only read up to a certain number of words.
<meta name = “description” content = “This is where you put the summary of your site” />
3. Meta Keywords
The meta keywords are a specific type of meta tag that accurately reflects the content on your website. A user should be able to know what your website is just by reading your meta keywords.
<meta name = “keywords” content = ” SEO, Digital marketing company, web development, Google, Search,” />
Meta Description Can Affect Click-Through Rates (CTRs)
The click-through rate shows the percentage of users who clicked on your search results from the total number of users who saw your search results. The principle is the same as the conversion rate, but with different and more specific names.
Meta Description Used by Other Web Platforms
Meta descriptions may be important for other platforms. To mention just a few, think about Facebook and Twitter. When you share links on this platform, they extract data from HTML to display titles, images, and descriptions. Though Facebook and Twitter have their own tags, however, many other web platforms may not have universally accepted tags and can rely on standard meta tags.