What are META tags and why use them for Search Engines?
META tags are invisible tags, that is, they’re not displayed on the actual webpage. However, META tags are valuable in that they enable search engines to index and classify your pages. Without META tags, a search engine uses the TITLE tag (which is why your page’s Title needs to clearly identify your page), or if that’s missing, by the first line of text on the page—which may not describe your page at all! META tags can ensure that your pages are accurately classified by search engines.
How do you put META tags on a page? Many webpage creation tools have Page Properties, which you can customize. Often it’s identified with a Name field and a Value field.
The most important META tag for search engines is Keywords, words or phrases that someone might enter into a search box in order to find your website. The better your keywords, the more likely that your site will appear near the top of the search results list. The second most important META tag is Description, which is what the search engine displays on its results page underneath your link. The better your description, the more likely someone will link to your site.
For Keywords, type “keywords” in the Name field. In the Value field, type about 20-25 words. Don’t use the same words more than three times–many search engines will bypass your page if there are more repetitions than that. Keyword phrases don’t have to read like sentences; the search engine takes the first word of a phrase and associates it with any words that follow in the phrase (but it won’t reverse the order of words). So, for example, you could type:
StateName EducationRegion public elementary mentor recognized schools, OurSchool District OurCity OurState schools, technology rich classrooms schools
To add a Description, type “description” in the Name field, then in the Value field type a brief description of your school or class and what you do. For example, you could type: “Westside is a K-5 Elementary school in the Dallas Texas Metroplex.” The sentence can be longer, but try to keep it a single sentence.
None of what you have typed will be displayed on your page, but if you go to View–Source, you’ll see near the top, a META tag followed by name=”keywords” content=” [a list of all those words and phrases you typed]” and another one with name=”description” content=”[your descriptive sentence]“. Now you’re ready for search engines to find you!
It’s good to have META tags on a homepage, but do you need them on all pages?
Yes and no. If you have special programs or events that you want indexed by search engines, list them in the keywords area for that page, placing them ahead of the other words in the list. If you want indexing through your homepage only, then don’t bother putting META tags on every page.
One META you may want on your homepage is for the RSACi rating system. This tag is used by filters for language, sex, violence and nudity. For public schools, we like our pages to be available through filters, so the RSACi tag can appear on every page to tell filters that we have “safe stuff” on our pages. Add RSACi information in Page Properties under System variables (HTTP-EQUIV). In the Name field type: “PICS-Label” and in the Value field copy and paste the following:
(PICS-1.0 http://www.rsac.org/ratingsv01.html gen truecomment RSACi North America Server by wac@cfbisd.edu cfbportal.schoolwires.net/site/default.aspx?domainid=1575 on 1997.04.24T 20:04-0500 r (n 0 s 0 v 0 l 0))
The n s v l at the end are the ratings, and they can be changed depending on material you place on your pages. Perhaps if you’re a high school displaying student artwork that might be a little heavy for a 7-yr-old, you could increase the n rating to 1 or 2, but generally school pages are zeros.
If you use the RSACi rating system, you can put their icon on your pages: