Google Advertising Tools, 2nd Edition

Meta Information

Meta information, sometimes called meta tags for short, is a mechanism you can use to provide information about a web page.

Note

The term derives from the Greek word meta, which means “behind” or “hidden.” Meta refers to the aspect of something that is not immediately visible, perhaps because it is in the background, but that is there nonetheless and has an impact.

The most common meta tags provide a description and keywords for telling a search engine what your website and pages are all about. Each meta tag begins with a name attribute that says what the meta tag represents. The meta tag:

<meta name="description" ...></meta>

means that this tag will provide descriptive information. The meta tag:

<meta name="keywords" ...></meta>

means that the tag will provide keywords.

The description and keywords go within a content attribute in the meta tag. For example, here’s a meta description tag (often simply called the meta description):

<meta name="description" content="Quality information, articles about
a variety of topics ranging from Photoshop,
programming to business, and investing."></meta>

Keywords are provided in a comma-delimited list. For example:

<meta name="keywords" content="Photoshop, Wi-Fi,
wireless networking, programming, C#, business, investing, writing,
digital photography, eBay, pregnancy, information"></meta>

More About Meta Tags

Meta tags can contain a lot more than just descriptions and keywords, including (but not limited to) a technical description of the ...