HTML meta tags, invisible to users and located in the header of a website, provide crucial information about the site. They indicate the structure, type of page, as well as the function and language of the content. In addition to influencing display and indexing, these tags are an essential SEO tool for improving the site's ranking in search engines.
What are meta tags in HTML?
THE meta tags HTML are special HTML tags because they are essential for presentation, interpretation and indexing of websites by browsers and search engines. They are found in the header of a website and are not visible to users. By skillfully using the HTML tag developers can provide page properties for better readability by search engines and define information such as language, content, structure or character encoding.
Meta tags are therefore an essential tool in HTML for optimizing pages. for search enginesimprove the ranking and control the display on all devices. Although metadata is no longer among the most important ranking criteria for websites today, HTML title and the meta descriptionin particular, continue to play an important role.
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The main areas of application of HTML meta tags
The main areas of application of HTML meta tags are as follows:
- Search engine optimization: Meta tags, such as for the meta description and title, provide search engines with information about the content and highlights of a page. They help to clearly summarize the content, generate interest and generate clicks.
- Indexing: metadata, such as the tag
robotstell search engines whether a page should be indexed or not. - Display and presentation: Meta tags may contain information and instructions about character encoding, display on mobile devices, automatic updates or redirections.
- Social networks: Social networks use specific meta tags, which must be taken into account to ensure correct display when sharing content.
- Accessibility: metadata plays a crucial role in accessibility, facilitating categorization by screen readers or ensuring optimal display on all devices thanks to the element
viewport.
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What is the role of HTML meta tags?
Search engines like Google today provide very concrete and precise thematic classification based on specific keywords and queries. Until a few years ago, metadata played a much more important role in ranking a website. However, because it was much easier to manipulate rankings using meta tags and keywords, this sometimes led to abuse, such as keyword stuffing.
For modern search engines, metadata and its markup with HTML, however, has not lost any of its importance. Quite the contrary: poor use of metadata can lead to the risk of being completely ignored. Appropriate use of relevant metadata, such as tag
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The main HTML meta tags and their syntax
The functions performed by meta tags and their use depend on the type of tag. We have summarized some of the main meta tags for you in the following paragraphs.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is one of the most important functions of the HTML tag . THE Following meta tags are particularly relevant for SEO :
Title
With title or item
As this is the clickable element in search results, it is important to have a clear and concise title that piques interest and is the correct length for a complete ad.
Syntax :
Insérer le titre du document html
Meta description
The meta description certainly does not play a direct role in the ranking, but just like the title, it constitutes the first contact with users and provides the first information likely to generate clicks. Adequate length as well as elements such as icons, symbols that highlight relevant terms, or a Call-to-Action (CTA) are also important in this regard.
Syntax :
robots
With the HTML attribute robotsyou can give search engines the SEO instructions relevant for indexing, links, snippets or backup :
index: the page can be indexed.noindex: the page should not be indexed.follow: indexing robots (crawlers) can follow the links on the page.nofollow: crawlers should not follow links on the page.nosnippet: the contents must not be used as featured snippet (or “optimized extract” in French).noarchive: the page saved in the Google cache should not be displayed.
If no data robots is not indicated, search engines interpret it as a permission to index, display snippets or follow links. Natural referencing with robots is therefore a very important function of meta tags.
Syntax for a page that can be indexed and whose links can be followed by crawlers:
viewport
The HTML meta attribute viewport is of fundamental importance for responsive website design. Although the meta tag is not directly relevant for SEO, it is nevertheless relevant for mobile SEOwhich also serves as an important ranking factor. Thanks to viewportyou tell a search engine whether your website supports responsive design on different devices and whether it is considered mobile-friendly. You watch with viewport to the correct representation of the website depending on the terminal, and therefore to a optimal usability.
Syntax :
Character encoding with charset
With the meta tag charsetyou indicate to browsers the character encoding used to guarantee a correct display of text. This is especially important if you have not specified the character set in the HTTP header or if the browser retrieves HTML files directly from the hard drive rather than via HTTP(S).
Syntax :
Cache with expires
If you don't want to completely disallow caching, you can use expires to set a date or period after which cached HTML data should expire. However, in modern web applications, the use of expires has become very rare, as caching is now primarily controlled by HTTP headers.
Syntax :
Author and copyright information
HTML meta tags author And copyright allows you to record the author and copyright information in the source code. This makes it easier to manage the page and is transparent about the latest changes made to it.
Syntax :
Keywords
Previously, keywords were one of the important ranking criteria when building websites. Today, meta keywords have significantly reduced importance and are ignored, at least by Google, when it comes to SEO relevance and ranking. As keywords, you describe the most important aspects of a page which, ideally, match users’ search intentions. Learning about keywords relevant to your field can provide competitive advantages. In principle, however, keywords now play a secondary role in ranking.
Syntax :
