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The <meta> tag is yet another example of the truth: sometimes what you don't see is what you get.

Dave Raggett describes the various uses of the tags on page 237-238. The two tags you will want to be sure to always use are:

<meta name="keywords" content="[fill in your words]"> These are the key words that some search engines will look for and use to categorize your page on their lists. Using "keywords" is an important step in promoting your page. These are discussed in more detail in the next note.

Equally important, but all too often forgotten, is the <meta name="description" content="[fill in your words]">. Go to Alta Vista or most search engines and try looking at the summary of pages for almost any topic. Notice the strange ones that seem like gibberish. If you do not use a <meta name ="description"> some search engines will simply print the first few words they find on the page, even when those words are just setting up tables and buttons.

Print Version

Meta tag site

This class emphasizes do-it-yourself html so that you know how to do each step yourself and do not have to rely on special programs. However, you can try doing the tags with this javascript designed by Michael Van Velthoven. Just fill in the information and then copy the meta tags it creates and paste them into your code. (Once you copy it into your code you may want to add commas between keywords or more keywords.)

Or to create tags with even more information see the meta tag tool at Scrub the Web.

Continue to keyword notes >>

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