The 10 Most Important Meta Tags You Need to Know for SEO

Brandonut
3 min readMar 4, 2024

Meta tags provide crucial metadata about a website page and are important factors in SEO. Properly optimized meta tags help search engines understand what the content is about so it can be ranked and displayed appropriately in search results. Here are the 10 most important meta tags every site owner needs to know.

#1. <title> Tag

The <title> tag appears at the top or in the tab of the browser window. It should be under 60 characters and include target keywords near the beginning to optimize for click-through rate in search results. Updating the title regularly helps with CTR and increases page authority.

#2. <meta name=”description” content=”…”>

The description meta tag provides a 2–3 sentence summary of the page content. It’s crucial for promoting click-throughs since Google may use this for displaying the page in search results. Keep it under 156 characters with keywords. Refresh it on page content changes.

#3. <meta name=”keywords” content=”…”>

Although no longer a direct SEO ranking factor, the keywords meta tag helps search engines better understand topics on the page. List 3–7 relevant, comma-separated keywords and keyword phrases targeted for the page. Make sure words actually appear on the page.

#4. <meta name=”author” content=”Name”>

This provides information on the author or publisher. Google may use it for authorship markup in search results. It should use a real author name rather than generic titles like “Admin.” Link the name to an about page for more credibility.

#5. <meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

The viewport meta tag controls layout on mobile browsers. It defines the visible area/width of a webpage when loaded on a device. Google recommends including it to create a better mobile experience which is now a ranking factor.

#6. <meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”>

The robots meta tag specifies what parts of a site should be indexed/followed by search engine crawlers. Using “index, follow” allows all pages to be crawled and lets search engines know it’s mobile-friendly. Blocking crawling hurts SEO.

#7. <meta name=”googlebot” content=”index,follow”>

While not necessary if you use the default robots meta tag, including a googlebot tag can remove any ambiguity about how Google specifically should handle the page content and links. It ensures Google knows it’s safe to crawl the page.

#8. <meta name=”revisit-after” content=”30 days”>

This informs search engines like Google how often to re-crawl and check for updates to the page. For most sites, “30 days” is a good starting point so changing content gets picked up regularly without overloading server resources.

#9. <meta name=”language” content=”en-US”>

Specify the language of the page’s content using codes like “en-US” for American English. This helps search engines understand the appropriate language to display content in. It’s better for multilingual/international SEO.

#10. <meta name=”geo.region” content=”US”>

For sites targeting geographically, include tags denoting the location of the target audience. This could be a country code like “US” or more specific like “NY” for New York state. Google may use this for localized or niche search results.

Some key things business owners should know about SEO include:

  • Properly optimized meta tags help your site rank higher in organic search results
  • Higher rankings bring more qualified visitors and leads to your site from search
  • SEO helps customers find your business online through searches more easily
  • It’s a powerful way to grow your customer base without heavy advertising costs
  • Local SEO strengthens your online presence where your target customers search locally

Brand Donut offers professional SEO services in Sacramento, Miami and Tampa to help businesses improve their search rankings and visibility through proven optimization strategies. Get in touch with their local SEO experts to discuss a customized campaign for your website and business goals.

Brand Donut Offering Professional SEO Services ! Get Hired Professional Local SEO Company in USA to increase your website visibility in United State.

Checkout our additional blog articles.
What Is Technical SEO
How to Create Planning and Strategies For SEO
What Is Google’s SEO Algorithm Updates
Types of SEO technique
What is Googlebot (Google Crawler)
What is an SEO Tool?

--

--