Metatags

Introduction to metatags

Metadata is information placed within a document in order to describe the document itself. Metadata is used to help search engines index web pages. By using tags which are not displayed by the browser, information about the page or site can be included in order to better describe its contents. In particular, it may contain information about the document's author(s), its expiration date, the language used, etc.

These "Metatags" are special tags found in the header of the document (i.e. the HEAD tag found before the BODY tag), mainly for supplying information so that search engines can index the web page.

There are two different types of metatags:

NAME metatags, for describing the HTML page itself:
```
<META NAME="Tag Name" CONTENT="Attribute">
```
HTTP-EQUIV metatags, for sending additional information to the browser using the protocol HTTP:
```
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Tag Name" CONTENT="Attribute">
```

Multiple metatags can be included, one after another, in a page header.

NAME metatags

Tag Name	Attribute	Use
Author	"Information about the author"	Information about the author of the page
Copyright	Copyright information	Provides copyright information
Description	"Description of your site"	Gives information to display in search results.
Expires	never "date when the page expires"	Tells the robot what date the page will expire on.
Generator	Software name	Name of the HTML editor which generated the web page.
Keywords	"keyword, keyword, etc."	Keywords describing the Web page.
Rating	general	Type of content (target audience).
Rev	Your@e-mail	Webmaster's e-mail address.
Revisit-after	"x days" where x is the number of days	How long before the robot visits again
Robots	all none	Lets all robots index the page Prevents robots from indexing it
Subject	"Page subject"	Specifies the subject of the page

HTTP-EQUIV metatags

Tag Name	Attribute	Use
Pragma	no-cache	Prevents browser from keeping the page in its cache
Refresh	x; URL="address"	Loads another page (located at the URL specified) after waiting x seconds.
Robots	all follow index nofollow noindex none	Lets the robot index the entire page (default) Lets the robot follow links on the page Lets the robot index the page Prevents the robot from following links Prevents the robot from indexing the page Stops the robot from indexing the site
Window-target	_blank _top	Forces the browser to display the page in a new window Displays the page full-size in a new window (not in a frame)

Last update on Friday April 24, 2009 01:03:18 PM.

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