M a n h a t t a n L o v e S o n g [ D O T ] c o m

Meta Tags

So, you've created a website and decided to get serious with it. Now all you need are meta tags!

What are meta tags?
meta tags are HTML codes that determine weather or not search engines index your page on their system and they can add a description to your website when it comes up on the search engine.

This is a description of my site on Google.
Why do I need meta tags?
Meta tags are not necessary for a website. It is, however, very important if you want to show up in the search results and get more visitors to your website - and who doesn't want that?

Okay, here it goes:

There are several types of meta tags,

<meta name="description" content="add DESCRIPTION here" />

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow" />

<meta name="keywords" content="add your KEYWORDS here" />

<meta name="author" content="YOU" />

<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright © 200X to YOU" />

Let me explain what each one means:

"description" - what shows up under your website's title on the search engine. An example of this is the picture shown above.
"robots" - tell the search engines to index your page (have it show up)
"keywords" - are the keywords that help the search engine put your site on the result list. Example for this website: webdesign,art,portfolio,personal site.
"author" - when the search engine lists you as the author of your website.
"copyright" - self explanatory.

How to put them on your website

Adding these tags are as simple as copying and pasting! You first need to find the <head> section of your page's HTML. Place it anywhere between the beginning and the end of the head. Voila! you've successfully added meta tags to your page! All you need to do now is change the contents of the tags accordingly.

Important Notes

the keywords must be comma-delimited.
do not add common misspellings of keywords in your keyword section. Search engines will often phish them out.
place your description in one line. It will look more aesthetically pleasing once it shows up on the search engine results page.
most importantly, give the search engines some time to recognize your page and add it to their system. Keep in mind that it could take up to 24 hours!