Categories: Search Engine Optimization

Updating Your Meta Tags: Why You Need To Do IT

People spend a considerable amount of time creating a results-driven digital marketing strategy and writing quality content. Often, they underestimate the power of a well-written Meta description tag.

But in reality, Meta tags play an essential role in influencing the appearance of your site on SERPs. They further impact the decision of online users whether to click through your website or not. Meta tags can affect your online rankings and SEO. So, it is vital to include Meta tags in your digital marketing strategy.

Before hiring SEO services packages, you need to know everything about Meta tags, from benefits to types and how to update them. We begin with the basics.

What are Meta tags?

When it comes to Meta tags, they are nothing but snippets of code with 160 characters. These snippets help to summarize your web page content on search engines. As a result, your visitors will get to know about your web page before clicking. It means if you write your Meta tags well while using the relevant keywords, your website can stand out among competitors. You can add Meta tags to the <head> section of your HTML page.

Do Meta tags play an important role in search engine optimization?

Meta tags are vital for search engine optimization. They serve various primary roles. Some of them are mentioned below:

Meta tags help online visitors understand your webpage content.
- Search engines use Meta tags to find out what your webpage topic is.
- They allow you to avoid any issues related to duplicate content.
- With well-written Meta tags, you can ensure more clicks and traffic organically.

Like any other SEO marketing, you need to update your Meta tags regularly. We know that Google Algorithms keep changing, along with the customers’ needs and demands. Thus, it is crucial to get your Meta tags updated to keep up with these changes. But to do so, your SEO services packages provider must be familiar with the different types of Meta tags, especially the ones Google likes.

Top Meta tags to consider for your SEO

Meta title – Meta title or title tag is one of the HTML elements displayed on browser tabs and search engine result pages. Its primary purpose is to specify your webpage content to visitors. The Meta Title is compatible with all browsers, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc.

You should always add your Meta title in the <head> section of your website. Also, try to keep your Meta title within 60 characters while optimizing it for visitors and search engines.

Meta description – It is another HTML element that search engines display in search results. It is placed below the Meta title. Meta description helps to summarize your web page.

While there is no fixed length about this, it depends on the system you use the most. In addition to this, Meta description does not have a prominent role in ranking. But it can significantly impact your page CTR, as it gets displayed in search results.

Robots Meta tags – The Robots Meta tag refers to an HTML tag that offers instructions to web crawlers. Accordingly, they will decide whether to index a web page or not.

It has four values for search engine crawlers such as Follow, No-Follow, Index, and No-Index. Please remember, you should place the Robot Meta tag in the <head> section of your web page.

Canonical tag – It is an HTML link tag that comes with the “rel-canonical” attribute. The canonical tag is helpful if you have a single-page URL with the same content as multiple URLs. Are you wondering how?

When you incorporate the Canonical tag in the code, you indicate that this URL is the primary page. As a result, search engines avoid indexing other URL pages.

Alternative text tag – Since search engines cannot read images, you need to add an Alternative text tag. With this, search engines can consider your pictures. There are a few things you need to keep in mind when creating an Alternative text tag for images, such as:
- Keep the text short and precise
- Use an original image
- Make sure your images have informative file names
- Write a text within 50-55 characters

Social media Meta tags – They consist of two tags Open Graph Meta tags and Twitter Cards. The former promotes integration between Facebook, Google, Linked In, and website URL. On the other hand, Twitter cards help you add special Meta tags for Twitter.

An ultimate guide to update your Meta Tags

Open “index.html” – Firstly, you need to open the “index.html” file in a text editor, like TextEdit and Notepad. After this, find the <head><head>tags. If it is not there already, you should add it to your document top.

Find <title><title> tags – Now, look for the <title><title> tags and type in between your preferred headline in two tags. If you do not find any tags there, add them manually. Well, congratulations! You have successfully got your headline updated.

Search <Meta> that has “name=description” – Search through your desired description in between the quotation “content.” Look for <Meta> with “name= ‘description’” in the tag and type. As seen already, if there is no <Meta>, add a code from this image. Your description is up-to-date!

If you have built your website with WordPress, updating your Meta tags is more convenient and easy. It comes with numerous free and paid SEO plugins that ensure the process is hassle-free.

Takeaway

Besides regularly updating your Meta tags, your white label SEO packages provider must know different Meta tags and how to use them effectively. After all, Google does not appreciate all Meta tags. For example, if you use a responsive Meta tag for your non-responsive website, it will affect your user experience remarkably. So, always hire experienced and skilled professionals.

If you are searching for a reliable company that offers affordable SEO services packages, look nowhere other than SoftProdigy. Our team of SEO experts can deliver quality results within your budget.

Preetika Thakur

Preetika has over 7 years of IT experience & has been a part of SoftProdigy since 2015. With her marketing skillset, she ensures that her solutions make life easier for her clients and boost their sales. She is passionate about developing brand strategies that inspire and transform brands. She works in varied digital marketing fields including organic boost, brand enhancement, email marketing, link building, and social media boosting. Additionally, she has experience in content strategy, marketing communications, vendor relations, strategic planning, execution and promotions. Apart from digital marketing, she shares interest in music & travelling.