WHAT ARE META TAGS?

Meta tags are HTML tags that provide metadata about a web page. They are used by search engines to understand the content of a web page and to display information about the page in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

The most common types of meta tags include:

    1. Title tag: The title tag is the text that appears in the browser tab when a web page is opened. It is also used as the title of the page in SERPs. The title tag should accurately and concisely describe the content of the page and include relevant keywords.

    2. Meta description: The meta description is a brief summary of the content of a web page. It is displayed in SERPs below the title tag and should be compelling and accurate. It should include relevant keywords and be no more than 155 characters long.

    3. Meta keywords: The meta keywords tag is used to list keywords that are relevant to the content of a web page. However, search engines no longer use this tag as a ranking factor, and it's not recommended to use it as it can be seen as keyword stuffing.

    4. Robots tag: The robots tag is used to tell search engines whether or not to index a web page or follow its links.

    5. Canonical tag: The canonical tag is used to specify the preferred version of a web page when there are multiple versions available.

An example of meta tags analysis on the Amazon homepage:

1. Title tag: "Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more"

2. Meta Description: "Online shopping from the earth's biggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software, apparel & accessories, shoes, jewellery, tools & hardware, housewares, furniture, sporting goods, beauty & personal care, broadband & DSL, gourmet food & just about anything else"

3. Robots tag: "index, follow"

4. Canonical tag: "https://www.amazon.com/"

As you can see, the title tag accurately and concisely describes the content of the page, which is online shopping for a wide variety of products. The meta description provides a brief summary of the types of products available on the site, and the robots tag tells search engines to index the page and follow its links. The canonical tag specifies that https://www.amazon.com/ is the preferred version of the page.

REFERENCES

HTML tag (no date) HTML meta tag. Available at: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp (Accessed: January 25, 2023).