Greetings!

The New Year is already very close. There are only about two days left. And this means that it’s time to take stock of the year that has almost passed, which is what I’ll do tomorrow. Well, now I’ll tell you about what meta tags are and how to correctly write them on a page and something else.

Let's start by defining meta tags:

Meta tags are HTML tags or XMTL, designed to convey structured data about web pages to search robots and browsers.

These same tags are needed only by browsers and search robots. Perform the following functions:

• Transmits information about a web page to search engines and browsers;
• Contain control commands for the search robot and browser;
• Provide information about the web page and the author.

But today we will only look at tags that perform the first two functions in the list above. They are the most necessary from an SEO point of view.

Meta tags Description, Keywords and Title tag

So, the meta tags Description, Keywords and Title tag convey information to the search robot and browsers about the web page. Filling them out correctly improves page indexing, so special attention should be paid to filling them out. But first, let's look at each of the tags.

• Description meta tag - indicates a description of the web page, which is usually used by search engines in snippets;
• Meta tag Keywords - indicated here keywords which the content on the page corresponds to;
• Title tag - the title of the page, which you can see in the results search results and in the browser tab. This tag is not a meta tag, but it performs similar functions to those listed above.

Previously, about 20 years ago, using only these tags, you could easily move to the TOP for any keyword, the main thing is to fill them out correctly and that’s it. But nowadays the situation has changed dramatically: due to the fact that webmasters abused this, search engines stopped taking these meta tags into account as a ranking factor. Now, simply by filling them out correctly, it is impossible to advance to the TOP.

Perhaps a question has arisen in your head: why are they needed then? And here is the answer: meta tags, as mentioned above, have a positive effect on page indexing. In addition, the information contained in them is the most important factor internal optimization. And this, believe me, is important!

Robots meta tag

• Index — enable indexing;
• Noindex - disable indexing;
• Follow - allow indexing of links;
• Nofollow - disable indexing of links;
• All — allow indexing of the page and links
• None—disable indexing of the page and links.

In some cases, this meta tag is really needed. You need to handle it very carefully, otherwise you may inadvertently block the necessary pages from indexing.

How to fill in meta tags?

All meta tags are written within tags , that is, at the very beginning of the code.

As you can see, the meta tag is written in the code with the element “ » with the presence of required attributes:

• name — the meta tag itself is written;
• content — the value of the tag is written.

See the example above.

How to fill out the Title tag?

The Title tag contains the title of the page, which is displayed in the search results and browser tab. In fact, this is the most important tag in terms of attracting visitors from search. And this means only one thing: the more attractive for potential client there will be a headline, the more visits you will have (provided that you are in the TOP - 10, of course).

The title should contain the keyword by which the page is promoted.

How to fill in the Description meta tag?

Description is also very important for attracting visitors, since PSs put in the snippet what is written in this tag. The number of characters is limited to 120-150 characters. Therefore, it is extremely important to create a description that is as informative as possible about the page.

Tips for filling:

1. Don't duplicate what is written in the Title tag;
2. Dilute the key query with thematic text;
3. Write only to the point!

How to fill the Keywords meta tag?

This tag is intended only for PS and they do not take it into account, which means it is useless. That's why I'll tell you a little about him.

Keywords must be listed separated by commas.

From everything written, we can conclude: the most important tags are Title and Description. You need to pay special attention to filling them out!

Well, that's all, dear friends!

See you soon and Happy New Year!

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   What does the Description meta tag do?

Why do people create websites? Some need to promote their company or company, others need a well-visited blog. The reasons may be different, but one thing is clear - the art of building and promoting a website requires time and effort.

And finally, you were able to build your first blog or website: you decided what topic it would be dedicated to, decided on the design and started filling it out. Now is the time to properly format the “description” and “keywords” meta tags. What are they and how to use them?

What is a meta description tag?

In short, description is brief description page, which the user sees as a snippet in the list of results Google search, Yandex, etc. Snipet - displaying description in search results. Although they are practically the same, in this article we will be able to see the difference.

IN source code page meta description tag is located at the head of the html code. It looks something like this:

How to fill out the description meta tag

Despite the fact that some people decide to use the same advertising passage for all pages of the site, according to most experienced site builders, it is important to write its own text for each page. Why? This affects visual perception user. In addition, if the description is written effectively, it will attract more visitors to your site. One important point Something worth considering is that the description should not be too long or too short - on average, at least 380 characters are desirable. And although, when looking at the search results, you may see 200-300 characters, in fact, Google uses the entire passage you wrote.

Thus, you must briefly and concisely describe what the user will find on your site. In addition, this needs to be done in such a way that he wants to come to you. Let's look at some examples of advertising excerpt design.

Examples of description texts

Meta description tag - how to fill? To find the answer to this question, let's look at some examples. If you are the owner of a website on psychology, as a description you could write something like: “Search for a psychologist, as well as tests, advice, family recommendations and much more.” On the other hand, you can briefly describe the purpose of the site if it is clear to most visitors what it is about. educational institution or the enterprise in question. It might look like this: "Moscow state university named after M.V. Lomonosov".

If your site contains music or video content, then the description text should list what can be downloaded from your page. It may say: “Download movies and music completely free at good quality" or "Free classics in modern processing - 128, 196, 320. Download for free."

At writing description you can take the “juiciest” part of the article (for those who are too lazy to write a separate unique text for the advertising passage). In any case, it is important that the user receives on your site the information that he expects to find and that you promise him. To learn how to correctly fill out the description meta tag, examples can be memorized or written down.

Automatic website generation systems

If you are building a website using a constructor, then the description meta tag for the site must be entered into the appropriate field in the editor. Along with the subheadings "h1", "title" and "keywords", there is a cell labeled "description". As is the case with other automatic website building systems, the description opencart meta tag must be entered into a specially designated field.

Incorrect description

It’s better not to use advertising snippet generation systems that automatically work with the page. Why? It is unlikely that you will be interested in text compiled by a machine, because most often such systems use the first few sentences of the page, and this is ineffective. The first paragraph does not always reflect the essence of the material you offer.

How is it different from description

Unlike description, keywords are a list of basic words needed to describe your page. However, keywords are also not the same as key user queries search engines- those words that are entered into top panel Google or Yandex search. True, today Yandex almost never uses these words when issuing search queries. Google, as their representative said, does not pay any attention to them at all. But the advertising fragment description is much more important - users see it and use it. Therefore, special attention should be paid to key queries and the description meta tag. If you still want to specify keywords for the pages of your site, then you need to enter a meta tag in the html code of each of them:

meta name="keywords" CONTENT="enter keywords for our page".

As with the description tag, it is located at the “head” of the page.

Key queries of the Yandex search engine

It’s good if your advertising fragment contains some words that users enter into the search bar. To determine the statistics of entered Yandex queries, you need to go to the website: http://wordstat.yandex.ru/. To use the service you must register. After that, enter your service or product in the line at the top of the page. Let's say your site is about history. Enter the word "history". And in the results we see two columns: “key query” and “number of impressions per month”. For example, the words “history class” were searched more than one and a half million times a month. Among the most frequently entered phrases we can see: “online history”, “horror story”, “American Russia”, “download 6” and “story 5”. In addition, in Yandex Wordstat you can select a region or locality for which to display statistical information. This is very convenient, because in different regions and cities people may be interested in different products.

If you use the most popular search queries in the description, you can make your site appear on the first pages of search engines. To achieve this, you will have to work hard - this is main goal every site builder.

Formation of snippets

As we have already said, we are talking about the same description text. Search engines Bing systems, Yahoo! and Google display a snippet for the Internet user, which is indicated in the description meta tag. But Yandex acts slightly differently. That is, what you write in the advertising excerpt tag will not be shown in the snippet area in the search results of a particular page. How to fix this? The text of this excerpt can be customized in the Yandex webmaster's account. However, there is information that we cannot influence, no matter how much we would like, for example, the number of stars of the hotel. To change some address information of a company or organization, you need to leave a special request. In most other cases, you can customize your ad copy yourself. There is such a significant difference in the Yandex search results. Why do you need to know this? Again, we will repeat this if we want to attract more visitors to our website.

What have we learned

So, as we have seen, everyone can correctly fill out the description meta tag for a site. Examples of how to do this have been described in detail in this article. In addition, you and I could find out what the difference is in filling out an advertising excerpt for the Yandex and Google search engines. We learned what users' key queries are for and how to select them, as well as the almost complete uselessness of keywords. By using all the tips in this article, you will be able to achieve complete success, and with some extra skill, your site may even rank in the top ten that users see World Wide Web. Remember one thing: once you promote your site, it is important to continue to improve it further so as not to lose the rating you have gained.

When it comes to meta tags and meta data, confusion often arises - novice specialists rush to optimize all content within the HEAD tag with the META element. Let's figure out which meta data is really important for SEO optimization, and which can be ignored.

What are meta tags?

Meta tags (from the English “meta tags”) are used to structure the accompanying data about the page. They are designed exclusively for robots, browsers, and specialized software so that they correctly “read” and process the presented information. Meta data is located in the HEAD directive along with scripts, styles and links (see screenshot below).

Three groups of meta tags are widely used:

• NAME;
• HTTP-EQUIV;
• CONTENT.

For marketers, site owners, SEO specialists - those who are involved in search engine optimization of websites and have nothing to do with professional development - it is important to remember and take into account only the NAME attribute and the description, robots, keywords, viewport tags. The rest of the information about meta data is of no use to you for solving SEO problems. In order to broaden your horizons, you can study, but this is unlikely to be required in your work.

Meta tags for SEO

Description

Description is the meta description of the page. For SEO, this tag is one of the key ones.

The syntax is as follows:

Previously, Google and Yandex, when generating a snippet in search results, displayed information from the description. But optimizers quickly realized that using description they can manipulate the search results. In addition, many site owners took an unscrupulous approach to filling out this meta tag: they inserted the first paragraph from the text, copied the title, or ignored it altogether.

Therefore, search engines have stopped generating descriptions based only on description - now the entire content of the page is taken into account. But this does not mean that description has lost its importance for SEO. Yandex and Google robots still scan the contents of the description and take it into account when determining the relevance of the document.

What is the length of the meta description tag

In the Yandex and Google webmaster guidelines you won’t find a single word about the length of meta descriptions. Moreover, the displayed length of descriptions in snippets is constantly changing: for example, in December 2017 Google of the Year expanded it to 300 characters, and in May 2018 shortened it to 160.

Therefore, when determining the optimal length of the meta- description tag one has to rely on empirical data and common sense.

As of October 2018, the displayed meta description length (in characters with spaces):

• Google: desktop search - 120-140; mobile search - 100-120;
• Yandex: desktop search - 120-220; mobile search - 110-200.

To make snippets informative for users of both search engines, it is better to important information add a description meta tag to the first 100-140 characters, and not 160-170 - as is commonly believed.

The actual length of the description can exceed 300 or 500 characters - but there is no point in spending resources on increasing meta descriptions, since users will not see this information anyway (search engines may perceive it as spam). It’s better to focus your efforts on SEO optimization of content and improving its quality.

How to write a description correctly

In order for the meta description to help promote your site, follow these rules:

• fill in a unique description for all site URLs (if it is not possible to place meta tags on all pages at once, start with the main page, catalog pages, and the most important products);
• the description must be accurate and contain useful information. For example, when describing a product in an online store, indicate its characteristics, purpose, and price. A phrase like “buy boots from us because we are the best” is excluded as a description;
• do not turn description into a spam list (listing key phrases, especially in direct occurrence).

“The presence of meta tags with low-quality content may cause the page to be removed from search results” - Yandex help.

Robots

Using this meta tag, you can allow or prohibit search robots from indexing pages and following posted links.

The robots meta tag can take the following values:

• index (or noindex) - page indexing is allowed (prohibited);
• follow (or nofollow) - indexing of links is allowed (prohibited); here's an interesting piece about noindex and nofollow;
• all - analog simultaneous use index and follow;
• none - analogue of simultaneous using noindex and nofollow;
• noarchive - the search results will not display a link to the cached copy.

The syntax is:

By changing the values ​​of the robots meta tag, you can control indexing, and search engines follow the instructions in this tag, unlike the directives in robots.txt, which are advisory in nature.

The meaning of the robots meta tag is understood by all search engines. You can also set indexing rules only for:

• Google - in this case the googlebot meta tag is used instead of robots (the same values ​​can be set);
• Yandex - instead of robots, yandex is indicated.

If robots meta tag is not registered, search robots index the page by default and follow the links on it. If conflicting values ​​are detected, the robots will choose the positive one (for example, if one meta tag prohibits indexing, and the second allows it, the robot will index the page).

Keywords

In the early days of search engines, this meta tag played an important role in ranking. Interestingly, Yandex still takes into account the content of this meta tag when determining whether a page is appropriate search queries, although in fact it does not have an impact on the keywords positions. At the same time, Yandex warns that if you fill it with outright spam - a large number keywords - this can lead to pessimization of the page or its exclusion from the index.

If you decide to fill in keywords, consider the syntax:

Do not include more than 10 keywords. In addition, the specified keywords must be present in the text of the page.

Viewport

This meta tag became especially relevant after search engines began to take into account mobile adaptation as a ranking factor. In normal practice, an SEO specialist is unlikely to have to write this meta tag - this is the task of the template developers. But you still need to know about its existence.

So, if the site is adapted for viewing on mobile devices, a viewport meta tag of this type will be written in the HEAD section:

Here, the device-width value of the width attribute tells the browser to fit the width of the window to the width of the device's screen. A value of 1 for the initial-scale attribute prevents the window from being scaled (for example, when the screen is rotated). You can learn more about mobile adaptation from the article “10 rules for optimizing a website for mobile devices”.

Title is not a meta tag, but it is very important for SEO

Formally, title is not a meta tag, but it works on a similar principle and plays key role in SEO, so it cannot be ignored.

Information from the title is taken into account by search engines when determining the relevance of a document. It is not displayed on the page, but Always reflected in search results, as well as as a title in the browser - in this fundamental difference from description, information from which is displayed at the discretion of the search engine.

Title tag syntax:

Like meta tags, title is placed inside the HEAD section.

Displayed length of title (characters with spaces):

• Google - about 60;
• Yandex - about 50.

The title should be informative, accurately describe the content of the page, include the main keyword, but without spam.

We wrote in detail about the principles of title composition in the issue of the newsletter “Effective Titles for SEO Promotion”. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the additional benefit in search results.

The title and description should make your site stand out from its competitors. You can find out what meta tags your competitors use in one click using a special one. The first 500 requests are free!

H1-H6 - tags useful for SEO

These are not meta tags. They are written in the BODY section - that is, their values ​​are content and visible to users. But since we are talking about SEO, they cannot be ignored.

H1-H6 are tags logical structure document. Each page must have one heading, enclosed in an H1 tag. Subheadings are enclosed in H2-H6 tags and are optionally added to the page (if required by the logic of document construction and presentation).

The syntax is:

First level header

Second level heading

Third level heading

etc.

When arranging tags H1-H6, the order must be observed: for example, after H1 there is only H2, and after H2 - only H3.

Beginning SEO specialists often have a question: are title and H1 the same thing? No - the title tag is written in the HEAD section, not the BODY, and this is what robots use when creating a snippet. At the same time, the text contained in the title and H1 tags is usually partially (more rarely, completely) duplicated.

Let's sum it up

For literate technical optimization site does not need to go into the jungle of meta data, but work only with the meta tags necessary for SEO - description, robots, keywords (optional), title tags, h1-h6, and also know about the viewport tag. In 99% of cases, this is a comprehensive list of SEO tags.

In order to be sure that the specified meta data is filled out correctly, we recommend conducting an SEO audit of the site, which can be ordered from PromoPult for only 3,000 rubles. In addition to checking the correctness of filling out meta tags, the specialist will analyze the semantic core of the site, internal and external factors, audience behavior and many other aspects that affect the effectiveness of promotion. As a result, you will receive a detailed report with recommendations for proper site optimization.

Meta tags are tags in the site code that are needed, first of all, so that search engines quickly understand what the site is about. For example, thanks to them, information about a web page and its author is reported to browsers and search engines, and commands are also transmitted. Now let’s look at what exactly these tags are and how to fill them out.

The three main meta tags are:

• title
• keywords
• description

If you fill them out correctly, then the algorithms search engines your website will work faster and better. In addition, they are one of the important factors internal optimization, and can also influence positions in search results (but only in very low-competitive niches).

Title- in fact, is not a meta tag in its essence, but performs the same function. The content of this tag is displayed by the page title, which is visible on the browser bookmark or in the search snippet. The title attracts both users and is important for indexing.

Keywords- This meta tag lists the main keywords relevant to the page.

Description- contains a description of the page. As a rule, the content of the description appears in the SERP snippet (but not always).

Where to add meta tags

Meta tags are written at the very beginning of the page, or more specifically, between the tags And . For example:

As you can see, in the attribute name the meta tag is indicated directly, and its value is in content.

Correct title tag

As we said above, the title has a special meaning - it is not a tag that is perceived only by search engines, but also by users, which is even more important. Therefore, the main rule for filling out the title tag is its attractiveness to target audience. It can be used master key, along which the page advances, but the main point- is to interest a person who is looking for what you can offer him.

For example:

How to fill out the description meta tag

The tag for visitors is no less important than the title, because it describes what will be found on the page. Therefore, its goal is almost the same: 160 characters(search engines, as a rule, don’t see anything else) interest, provide a little information and force a click. The description should not copy the title, and the key you put in it should fit organically into the text.

For example:

How to fill out the keywords meta tag

This tag is important only for search engines, and if it affects the indexing of the page, then to a lesser extent than other events search engine optimization. Yes, it is not the most important, but we will not ignore it. Filling out the keywords tag is very simple: you just need to indicate, separated by commas, the chapters and keywords by which you are moving. Use only those words that are on the page and no more than 20 words.

For example:

There is nothing complicated in filling out meta tags, and no one can guarantee that they will significantly affect the optimization of your site - after all, this is one of the tools, of which there are many, and the degree of influence of each is difficult to determine, especially the significance of meta tags changes all the time (once upon a time they could have played a decisive role). However, if they are important to the site visitor and form a snippet, then skipping them is definitely not recommended.

Don't miss:

Title and description meta tags are the basis for website promotion in search engines. To achieve good effect in this difficult matter, you should adhere to several rules, which we will consider in this article.

title tag

Is one of the most important tags. Search robots it tells you what your web page is about, the title serves as a kind of title. Optimization work should begin with this tag, as it helps improve rankings in search results.

The title tag is indicated at the beginning of the HTML page code and is displayed in the header:

It is also shown in search engine results:

By title title Most users decide whether to go to the site or not, so the tag should be interesting, informative and attractive.

• The basic information of the tag should be contained in 40-70 characters with spaces. Search engines cut off long titles.
• Start your title with something important key query, use the exact occurrence of the keyword. Indicate the highest-frequency phrase you selected at the beginning semantic core. If the main goal that the user of the site should achieve is a purchase, then the tag should start with the word “Buy”.
• Indicate the city of the site in which you work. This is important not only for people, but also for search engines. When ranking, search engines will take into account the specified city, and users will understand whether your company is suitable for its territorial location. But if you work in several cities or make deliveries throughout Russia, it is better not to list cities.
• Don't oversaturate title key In other words, just 1-3 queries are enough for which the page is optimized. For example, the title “Buying a car, buying a car quickly, urgent buying a car” is over-spammed and unattractive to potential clients. Add a benefit that differentiates you and will interest the potential client; indicate the city of location. When optimizing, always focus on people, not robots. For example, the Title “Urgent car purchase in Moscow within 24 hours” is more effective.
• The title within the site must be unique, compiled for each page and reflect its content.
• Do not overuse safe words: conjunctions, prepositions, interjections and particles. But to increase the readability of the title, it is better to include them in the tag text.
• Do not use special characters (“”= ()/ \ | + _) and punctuation marks (- . ! ?).
• Do not include the company name in the title as it is not a significant keyword. But if you famous brand, then you can specify it. Also, do not write down the site URL and such “useless words” as “ Home page", "About the company".
• Compose the title tag for people according to all the rules of the Russian language; the title should be catchy and attractive.

Description tag

Search engines generate a snippet from the content of the description tag and/or from the content on the page, depending on the search query.

• The tag length should not exceed 150-250 characters including spaces.
• The tag must describe the content specific page resource.
• Provide the most important information by placing keywords at the beginning of the tag. It is important that the request is in the initial word form, that is, you must use the request “buy an air conditioner” and not “buy an air conditioner”.
• Description should not repeat title. The description should serve as a continuation of the title, revealing it in more detail.
• Must be written for people.
• The description must be unique for each page.
• Should not be spammed with key queries.
• Indicate the benefits of your company or resource to catch the attention of users and stand out among competitors.
• Add calls to action, they motivate people to make a purchase, order services, etc. The tags also contain attractive emojis.
• Avoid banal phrases " low prices», « high quality"etc. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by being unique; this applies not only to title and description meta tags, but also to texts on the site.
• Do not use special characters or stop words.
• Do not include the site URL.
• If you did not indicate the company name in the title, you can add it to the description. The description has more characters allowed, and the title can be used to remind you of your brand and improve its recognition.

Title and description for online stores

Compose competently unique title and description tags for a corporate website and resources where there are not too many large number pages, easy. But what to do when your project is an online store with a huge amount goods?

In this case, I recommend using templates to automatically generate title and description tags; this scheme will avoid duplicating tags. Of course, your title and description will not be ideal from an optimization point of view, but you will avoid complete duplicates and will not forget about the inclusion of important key queries.

You can create a Title tag for product cards in an online store using the following templates:

1. “Product Name” is inexpensive in the “Name” online store.
2. “Product name” buy inexpensively in “City name”.
3. Buy “product name” in “City name” with delivery.

As a Description template for an online store, you can use:

• “Product name” from “price from product card” with free shipping.

• Use a call to action at the end of the tag, e.g. “Order from the Store Name store.”