Websites that do not have proper meta tags or missing them lack the opportunity to rank higher in the search results. Some Important Meta Tags You Need to Know for Effective SEO have a high impact on the ranking, while others have little or no impact on the website’s ranking. The meta tag describes the content of the page to the SERPs. You can say it as the snippets of code that provide important information to the search engine about your website.
Having the right meta tag effectively communicates to the search engines, i.e., What your page is about, what you will be reading in it, and other things. Here we are providing some of the important meta tags that have a wide impact on SEO.
In this article, you will get to know about the eight most important meta tags that have a good effect on On-Page SEO.
- Title tag
- Meta description
- Header tags
- Image Alt Attribute
- Nofollow Attributes
- Robots meta tag
- Schema Markup
- Responsive design meta tag
1. Title tags
The title tag is considered the most important anchor. It is the clickable element that appears in the headlines of the SERPs. It should be attractive because after seeing the title, searchers will click on your webpage.
The HTML format of the title tag appears in such form:
<title> Some Important Meta Tags You Need to Know for Effective SEO </title>
The title tag is placed at the top of the webpage, and it provides clear and comprehensive knowledge about the webpage. So do they really have an effect on the website ranking as it is used for many years?
The web page title is the principal thing for a searcher to see in SERPs and choose if the page is probably going to answer the pursuit plan. In recent years, client conduct factors were being examined a ton as coherent evidence of the title tag importance and hence a positioning sign; even Google delegates concede its effect to a great extent.
A well-designed title tag is effective in gaining more clicks and traffic that improves the website ranking. Google also does not demand the exact matching keyword to describe your webpage. Your title should be relevant to the service that you are offering.
Best Practices:
- You should use a unique title for every web page for describing the consistency and accuracy of the webpage.
- The length of titles should be up to 50-60 characters.
- It would be best if you naturally place the important keywords.
- Try to add the brand name in the title.
- The title tag should be click-worthy, not clickbait.
2. Meta Description tags
The summary of the webpage is described in the meta description. It appears in the form of a snippet in the search engine results. You can consider this as a convincing pitch for the readers.
The HTML format of the meta description tag is:
<meta name= “description” content= “It appears in the form of a snippet in the search engine results.”/>
It is not the topmost factor to improve the website ranking. But if you want to polish your brand reputation and click-through rate, it is a great opportunity. If searchers find a promising and clear solution for their query, they will definitely click on it. It is effective in increasing the number of clicks and decreasing the bounce rate. The description of your webpage should be realistic and have relevant keywords. You can not put every keyword in the meta description, and it is not necessary to.
Best Practices
- There should be unique content in each of your descriptions.
- The length of the meta description should be max out around 150-160 characters.
- The most relevant keywords should be used, and overstuffing of keywords should not be done.
- The description should be eye-catchy or call-to-action so that readers get attracted to that.
3. Heading Tags (H1-H6)
The HTML tags are designed to differentiate the headings and subheadings from the rest of the content with heading tags. It ranges from H1 to H6, larger to smaller. More emphasis is done on the H1 tag by most of the SEO agencies. But there is no such fact that can prove that there is improvement in ranking if the focus is according to the headings’ hierarchy. However, it is useful in the organization of the content of the webpage and improves the readability of the readers.
Search engines find it easy to crawl the well-organized content, and users can digest it easily. You can say that it is effective in making a user-friendly website.
Best Practices
- The heading should be relevant to the chunk of text that has been described in that paragraph.
- Do not overuse the keywords and keep it simple so that readers find it easy to read.
- Try to match the H1 tag and title of the page as Google recommends it.
4. Image Alt Attributes
The alternative content is added to the image to describe it. Sometimes, when images do not load, the reader can get an idea with the alt text that this image wants to convey. The use of alt attributes is important for on-page optimization. Google does not see the image, but it reads the context that is provided in the alt attribute.
If you have an e-commerce website, then you should have a good quality image. It improves the interaction of the visitor on your website. The text helps to understand what this image is about. It helps in improving the ranking. There should be proper relevancy among the image context and alt text. The caption of the image should also be kept in the right place.
The Image Alt Attributes format of the Alt tag appears in such form:
<img src=”wp-content/uploads/2018/03/marketing-sweet-logo.png” alt=”Marketing Sweet Logo”>
Best Practices
- You should optimize the images as they have a chance to appear in the Google Images search, such as product images, infographics and that will direct traffic to your website.
- The alt text should be clear and descriptive.
5. Nofollow Attributes
Some links of your website would point to another website, which is termed as external or outbound links. It is done to point people towards other useful resources or due to other reasons relevant sites are added. Such a type of link has a wide impact on SEO. By doing this, you will get your content like a comprehensive thing that has back support from a reliable source. Google is very smart in understanding the manipulation of links that can cause penalties. Google also refers to the link you have kept on your website to understand the webpage content better. Thus it is important to pay attention to which link you are doing hyperlinks and where you are placing on your website.
If you place the “nofollow” value in the rel attribute, it signals Google bot that it should not follow these links. Google ignores such types of links.
Here we are providing an example of the nofollow link attribute in action.
There should be a healthy balance of Nofollow and Follow links on your website. Some of the links of your website should be done nofollow.
- If you are placing links to the resources that can be considered untrusted content.
- If there are any sponsored or paid links.
- Any link from user-generated content can be spammed and beyond your control.
- Register and Sign-in link of the webpage.
You may also read this – What Factors That Affect The Cost Of SEO Services in 2021 And Why?
6. Robots Meta Tag
This tag is used to provide the proper information to the instructors on how a web page should be crawled. If there is noindex attribute in the robot meta tag, then the crawler will not index that page.
The HTML format is for robot meta tag is:
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>
<meta name=”robots” content=”nofollow” />
<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow”>
To stop a snippet from displaying in search results:
<meta name=”robots” content=”max-snippet:0″>
To allow up to 20 characters to be shown in the snippet:
<meta name=”robots” content=”max-snippet:20″>
To specify that there’s no limit on the number of characters that can be shown in the snippet:
<meta name=”robots” content=”max-snippet:-1″>
This tag does not have a direct impression on the ranking. Google does not like thin content, and you do not intentionally create such a webpage with little content. Also, there will be some content in the draft that is not ready to publish or not fully optimized. Thus you would not like to consider those pages for quality checking. In that case, the noindex attribute is helpful. You can make such web pages not to be indexed.
Best Practices
- You should close the unnecessary or unfinished pages that do not have sufficient content so that they do not appear in SERPs.
- Remove pages that are wasting crawl budget.
- You should be attentive so that important pages do not get any indexing attribute.
7. Schema Markup
It is the specific technique to design the data on the webpage so that search engines can read it easily. It is an important feature that offers a win-win chance. It helps in boosting the UX and carries huge SEO value. The structured data not only helps in reading the content but also helps in understanding the words. A snippet with rich content, with a pleasant picture, a 5-star rating, indicated value range, stock status, working hours, or whatever is helpful is probably going to get attention and pull in a greater number of snaps than a plain-text result. Adding the markup of certain page components makes your SERP a bit wealthy in data that is useful and engaging for clients. Furthermore, starting over, client conduct factors like CTR and bounce rate amount to how web crawlers choose to rank your website.
Best Practices
- Be updated with the latest schema.
- You should create a map for the important pages and consider the concepts that are relevant to each other.
- After implementing the schema, you should test it so that nothing goes misleading and everything is added properly.
8. Responsive Design Meta Tag
The responsive design meta tag is also known as the viewport meta element. This tag allows designers to easily configure the web page to display any device with the proper page scales easily. If there is no responsive design, your web page will get cramped or over-stitched on the devices. By using this tag, the website fits on every dimension device. It is available in the head section of the web page. The user experience gets improved with the viewport meta tag. The user appreciates this type of website.
The HTML format of the responsive design meta tag is:
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0″>
Conclusion
You should not neglect the small tweaks for optimizing the webpage, as these small tips are effective in improving the website ranking. Some meta tags should be used wisely so that results can be seen.
You can contact experts of Marketing Sweet to get the better result of your website. Marketing Sweet is a successful marketing company because we make our clients happy every day. Although our staff all come from different backgrounds and possess different skills, we work in an extremely collaborative environment, and we all share a common drive. We are passionate about bringing our client’s visions to life. You can give us a call on 08 8337 4340 to know in detail about our services.
