MandyJay
03-02-2002, 10:44 AM
Here is a list of meta tags and brief description of what they are. This is by no means the complete list, so please add others.
All meta tags should be placed in the top of your page. Between the <head> </head> tags in your HTML document.
DESCRIPTION Meta Tag
This meta tag informs the search bot/web crawler or visitor via a brief synopsis what your site is all about.
<META name="Description" content=" everything you want to know about Front Page etc etc etc">
KEYWORDS meta tag
This meta tag informs the search bot/web crawler what the main points are of the document it is reviewing. Never repeat your keywords more that 6 times as a rule.
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Front Page 98, Front Page 2000, Front Page 200K, tips & tricks, database, asp, html, server">
Make sure your keywords appear on your page, don't go using words that are not related to your page or dont appear. Search Engines don't take too kindly to that.
PICS or LABEL meta tag
This is not essential but it shows the "child safe rating" for your site. You get the coding from safe surf or R.S.A.C., one tag for each rating. More information from http://www.w3.org/pics and the tag will look something like this
<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content=" ">
RATING meta tag
This meta tag is a simple site rating scheme.
<meta name="rating" content="General">
Safe For Kids
14 Years
General
Mature
Restricted
ROBOTS meta tag
This tag instructs the robot (spider) what to do with your pages.
This meta tag should be used always, as it instructs the robot (spider) what to do with your pages.
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
these are the ones you can use
ALL - index all pages
INDEX - Index the specific page but do not follow the links.
FOLLOW - The search engine robots will follow and index linked pages.
NOINDEX - Continue onto linked pages but do not index current page.
NOFOLLOW - Do not follow the associated linked documents.
DISTRIBUTION meta tag
This meta tag designates the scope of distribution of your document. This can be used for content control. Web servers will not service a Local document to web visitors.
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
GLOBAL
LOCAL
COPYRIGHT meta tag
This meta tag clearly states who owns the copyright of the document text, or design.
<meta name="copyright" content="date/your name or name of company">
AUTHOR meta tag
the author of the web site.
<meta name="author" content="Your Name Here">
LANGUAGE
This meta tag identifies the language of the context.
<meta http-equiv="language" content="eng">
<meta http-equiv="dialect" content="us">
DOCUMENT EXPIRES meta tag
This meta tag can be used by caches to determine when to fetch a fresh copy of the associated document.
<meta http-equiv="expires" content="5 days">
REPLY TO meta tag
This meta tag is used to identify to whom the visitor should send comments or replies.
<meta http-equiv="reply-to" content="your email address here">
REVISIT meta tag
This meta tag is used to inform the search bot/web crawler when it should revisit your web document to update its index.
Recommended NO LESS THAN 30 DAYS and NO MORE than 1 year.
<meta name="revist-after" content="30 days">
PRAGMA meta tag
This meta tag is used to inform the browser that it should retrieve a new copy of the document versus using a cached version.
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
Refresh
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="25; URL=http://www.sitename.com/foldername/pagename.html">
Change the URL to that which you want to redirect the use. The content is how long before the given URL is called. Some search engines will not index pages with this tag (fights SPAMMING). Some browsers don't support this tag, so it's good to have a manual link, too.
All meta tags should be placed in the top of your page. Between the <head> </head> tags in your HTML document.
DESCRIPTION Meta Tag
This meta tag informs the search bot/web crawler or visitor via a brief synopsis what your site is all about.
<META name="Description" content=" everything you want to know about Front Page etc etc etc">
KEYWORDS meta tag
This meta tag informs the search bot/web crawler what the main points are of the document it is reviewing. Never repeat your keywords more that 6 times as a rule.
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Front Page 98, Front Page 2000, Front Page 200K, tips & tricks, database, asp, html, server">
Make sure your keywords appear on your page, don't go using words that are not related to your page or dont appear. Search Engines don't take too kindly to that.
PICS or LABEL meta tag
This is not essential but it shows the "child safe rating" for your site. You get the coding from safe surf or R.S.A.C., one tag for each rating. More information from http://www.w3.org/pics and the tag will look something like this
<meta http-equiv="PICS-Label" content=" ">
RATING meta tag
This meta tag is a simple site rating scheme.
<meta name="rating" content="General">
Safe For Kids
14 Years
General
Mature
Restricted
ROBOTS meta tag
This tag instructs the robot (spider) what to do with your pages.
This meta tag should be used always, as it instructs the robot (spider) what to do with your pages.
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
these are the ones you can use
ALL - index all pages
INDEX - Index the specific page but do not follow the links.
FOLLOW - The search engine robots will follow and index linked pages.
NOINDEX - Continue onto linked pages but do not index current page.
NOFOLLOW - Do not follow the associated linked documents.
DISTRIBUTION meta tag
This meta tag designates the scope of distribution of your document. This can be used for content control. Web servers will not service a Local document to web visitors.
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
GLOBAL
LOCAL
COPYRIGHT meta tag
This meta tag clearly states who owns the copyright of the document text, or design.
<meta name="copyright" content="date/your name or name of company">
AUTHOR meta tag
the author of the web site.
<meta name="author" content="Your Name Here">
LANGUAGE
This meta tag identifies the language of the context.
<meta http-equiv="language" content="eng">
<meta http-equiv="dialect" content="us">
DOCUMENT EXPIRES meta tag
This meta tag can be used by caches to determine when to fetch a fresh copy of the associated document.
<meta http-equiv="expires" content="5 days">
REPLY TO meta tag
This meta tag is used to identify to whom the visitor should send comments or replies.
<meta http-equiv="reply-to" content="your email address here">
REVISIT meta tag
This meta tag is used to inform the search bot/web crawler when it should revisit your web document to update its index.
Recommended NO LESS THAN 30 DAYS and NO MORE than 1 year.
<meta name="revist-after" content="30 days">
PRAGMA meta tag
This meta tag is used to inform the browser that it should retrieve a new copy of the document versus using a cached version.
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
Refresh
<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="25; URL=http://www.sitename.com/foldername/pagename.html">
Change the URL to that which you want to redirect the use. The content is how long before the given URL is called. Some search engines will not index pages with this tag (fights SPAMMING). Some browsers don't support this tag, so it's good to have a manual link, too.