FACTOID # 165: Bolivia has 4,500 Navy personnel - which seems like quite a lot for a landlocked country.
 
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Encyclopedia > Meta tag

Meta tags are HTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web page. Such elements are placed as tags in the <head></head> section of an HTML document. In computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document. ... Metadata (Greek meta over and Latin data information, literally data about data), are data that describe other data. ... A web page or webpage is a resource on the World Wide Web, usually in HTML/XHTML format (the filename extensions are typically htm or html) and with hypertext links to enable navigation from one page or section to another. ... An excerpt of HTML code with syntax highlighting In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser. ...

Contents


Meta tag structure

<!ELEMENT META - O EMPTY -- generic metainformation> <!ATTLIST META

 %i18n; -- lang, dir, for use with content -- http-equiv NAME #IMPLIED -- HTTP response header name -- name NAME #IMPLIED -- metainformation name -- content CDATA #REQUIRED -- associated information -- scheme CDATA #IMPLIED -- select form of content -- > 

Search engine optimization

The two most common uses of meta tags on the Web are to provide a description and to provide meta keywords for a web page. This data may then be used by search engines (such as Google) to generate and display a list of search results matching a given query. A search engine or search service is a program designed to help find information stored on a computer system such as the World Wide Web, inside a corporate or proprietary network or a personal computer. ... Google Inc. ...


Meta tags such as these have been the focus of a field of marketing research known as search engine optimization (SEO). In the mid to late 1990s, search engines were reliant on meta tag data to correctly classify a web page. Webmasters quickly learned the commercial significance of having the right meta tag, as it frequently led to a high ranking in the search engines - and thus, high traffic to the web site. It has been suggested that Product marketing be merged into this article or section. ... Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings, and could be considered a subset of search engine marketing. ... See also 1990s, the band The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, sometimes informally including popular culture from 2000 and 2001. ...


As search engine traffic achieved greater significance in online marketing plans, consultants were brought in who were well versed in how search engines perceive a web site. These consultants used a variety of techniques (legitimate and otherwise) to improve ranking for their clients.


In the early 2000s, search engines have veered away from reliance on meta tags since many web sites used inappropriate meta keywords or a technique known as keyword stuffing, in order to increase their search engine ranking. Some search engines still take meta tags into consideration when delivering results, though most of the major search engines ignore them. Currently, Google does not use meta tags to index web sites, however Google will sometimes use text from the meta description in search results pages as the snippet of text that it displays, if terms queried appear in that description. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical Search engine optimization (SEO) technique. ...


Techniques have also been developed in order to penalize web sites considered to be "cheating the system". For example, a web site repeating the same meta keyword several times may have its ranking decreased by a search engine trying to eliminate this practice, though that is unlikely. It's more likely that a search engine will ignore the meta keyword tag completely, and most do regardless of how many words used in the tag.


Redirects

It has been suggested that Meta refresh be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Meta refresh tags can be used to instruct a web browser to automatically refresh a web page after a given time interval. It is also possible to specify an alternative URL and use this technique in order to redirect the user to a different location. Web designers using a meta refresh in this way and solely by itself, is not always going to work. For Internet Explorer's security settings, under the miscellaneous category, meta refresh can be turned off by the user, therby disabling its redirect ability entirely. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... META refresh is an HTML meta element specifying an interval after which a browser should auto-refresh the page. ... META refresh is an HTML meta element specifying an interval after which a browser should auto-refresh the page. ... Icons for Web browser shortcuts on an Apple computer (Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox). ... A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ... URL redirection is a technique on the world wide web for making a web page available under many URLs. ...


HTTP message headers

Meta tags of the form <meta http-equiv="foo" content="bar"> can be used to send http headers. For example, <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:25:27 GMT"> would tell a browser (or other http client) that the page "expires" on June 21, 2006 and that it may safely cache the page until then.


Alternative to meta tags

An alternative to meta tags for enhanced subject access within a web site is the use of a back-of-book-style index for the web site. See examples at the web sites of the Australian Society of Indexers www.aussi.org and the American Society of Indexers [1].


In 1994, ALIWEB, which was likely the first web search engine, also used an index file to provide the type of information commonly found in meta keywords tags. Aliweb (Archie Like Indexing for the Web) can be considered the first Web search engine, as its predecessors were either built with different purposes (as it is the case with the World Wide Web Wanderer) or were literally just indexers (as Archie, Gopher, Veronica and Jughead). ...


External links

  • HTML 4.01 Specification: Meta data
  • Meta Tag Generator
  • Meta tag is created in JavaScript
  • Meta Description Tag A full description of the Meta Description tag.
  • Death Of A Meta Tag - October 1, 2002 - SeachEngineWatch.com

  Results from FactBites:
 
SearchEngineWatch: How To Use HTML Meta Tags (2326 words)
Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
The meta description tag allows you to influence the description of your page in the crawlers that support the tag (these are listed on the Search Engine Features page).
The meta keyword tag is also sometimes useful as a way to help your page come up for synonyms or unusual words that don't appear on the page itself.
What Are HTML Meta Tags? - Webmaster Resources Article (0 words)
Meta tags are hidden html tags of an html document that are not displayed in a browser but provide a browser or search engine robot with useful information.
Meta tags used by the browser define particular things about the document, like what character set to use when displaying the characters on the page, or what language the html document is written it, or how many long should be waited before refreshing the page or redirecting to another webpage.
Meta tags are a useful tool for webmaster who wish to customize their web page listing in the search engines.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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