Meta tags
The term 'meta' comes from ancient Greek and loosely translates as 'about'. Over time it has become more specifically used to mean 'to contain' or 'to be of the meaning'. In this context it is best described as a 'websites overview'.
Mistore CMS websites give you the opportunity to add your own meta tags to each web page. They also assign default meta information for any web pages that you have not assigned meta data.
The main function of the meta tags is to help the search engines understand your website. Meta tags increase SEO and add a visual title to the web page, so it's well worth taking the time to complete them. There are three meta tags per web page which are title, description and keywords:
[click here for our top tips on writing good meta tags]
Meta titles
Meta titles appear at the very top of your browser and if applicable the browser tab, for example, the title of this web page is: “meta tags | title | description | keywords | CMS website SEO”
The search engines read the meta title as a guide to what the web page is about. The title also appears in the search engine results as the first line of the entry.
It's worth noting that in the search results all keywords that match the search term are presented in bold. If you consider that this web page is talking about meta titles and keywords, and that if you wanted to know about meta titles and keywords you might search for “meta titles and keywords”, the current search result using the current meta title would show:
Meta tags | title | description | keywords | CMS website SEO
Consider this alternative title for this page:
“Mistore CMS websites and online store information for optimising your web solution by using meta tags, descriptions, titles and keywords”
A title of this length will be truncated in the search results and because it doesn't start with the main content theme, fewer keywords would be visible to the searcher, not to mention devalued by the search engines. It would look like something this:
Mistore CMS websites and online store information for optimising…
Consequently it is more likely that the first example will rank higher in the search engines but also the person searching would be drawn to the web page that is clearly about meta titles and keywords even though in principle the content of the pages would be identical.
A basic rule of thumb to creating a good meta title:
- Try not to exceed 60 characters (including spaces). Less is often more.
- Start with the core content of the web page.
- The title should be relevent to the content of the web page.
- It should be keyword rich.
- It should be to the point (avoid using unnecessary words such as and, a, with, etc).
Meta descriptions
The meta description is a brief overview of the web page, often similar or identical to the meta title. Its purpose is almost exclusively for the search engines to read.
On occasion the meta description can appear directly below the meta title in the search results, but this is not generally the case (most frequently text shown beneath the link in a search result is from the web page's main content).
A basic rule of thumb to creating a good meta description:
- Try not to exceed 150 characters (including spaces).
- It should start with the core content of the web page.
- The description should be relevant to the content of the web page.
- It should be keyword rich.
The meta description for this page is:
“meta tags, meta title, meta keywords and meta description information for mistore CMS website and online store”.
Meta Keywords
Keywords can be individual words or key phrases, written as a string of comma-separated words or phrases. They exist to help the search engines identify the web page. Much debate surrounds how much value is attributed to the keywords by the search engines, more so because as the complexity of the algorithms increases with time they are increasingly able to identify web page content in a more comprehensive way.
Whilst this might seem a controversial argument, there are sound reasons for including keywords as a factor within the search algorithms. Perhaps ultimately because search engines all work differently and whilst some are reputed to ignore keywords, others are reputed to rely on them.
It's fair to say that keywords are written by website operators and are therefore subject to interpretation. However it would not be unreasonable to suggest that there would be added value for search results
Keywords often portray the significant phrases in the content or the phrases that the website operator feels are most relevant to them. This often involves using words that are not contained within the content itself, but still hold relevance.
For example, consider a web page discussing ecommerce. Ecommerce has many names and phrases that have the same meaning such as online store, online shop, selling online, web store, web shop, e-commerce, ecommerce website, website shop, website store etc. They are all terms that will are commonly used in searches.
However website content should be written for visitors to the website, so if the page was written in line with the code of ethics the word ecommerce would be the only word used. However, because all the other words would be equally relevant, it stands to reason that they should be included in the keywords.
With that in mind, for search engines to ignore keywords completely would highlight the inadequacy of the algorithms and therefore the failings of the search engine.
The keywords for this page are:
“meta tags, website overview,meta data,meta titles,meta descriptions,meta keywords,SEO,search engines,web page,title,description,keywords,CMS,content,keyword rich,search resultswebsite,website shop,website store,tips,mistore”
It's worth noting that every keyword exists within the content of this web page.
There is no hard and fast rule on the perfect keywords, but a good rule of thumb would be:
- Try not to exceed 700 characters in total (including spaces).
- Try to keep phrases no longer than three words.
- Try to avoid using the same word in different phrases more than three times.
- Use the most important keywords first.
- Use keywords or phrases that exist within the content of the web page.
Do meta tags make a difference?
In short, yes!!! Take the time to complete them because they are one of the key factors in getting results on the search engines.
