How to Use Meta Tags and Why They Are Still Relevant

SEO is always changing and the guidelines on how to boost your website are also shifting. The meta tags do not attract much attention in this regard.  Meta tags do a little directly to affect Google SEO rankings but yet they have a great impact on a site's ranking. Hence, we must understand how this works; get to know the important meta tags, and how to use them effectively.

Below are some reasons why meta tags can help increase the SEO of your site.

• Your site's google indexing is influenced by meta tags. The metatags make it possible for Google to know the content in the pages on your site so they could be found easily on relevant searches.
• Meta tags can also increase the keywords ranking.  When you add relevant keywords to your meta tags, you improve the change that Google will rank higher your page in the search and this helps to make your site easily noticed.
• Using the correct meta tags will definitely improve user experience. The tags you use certainly give an impression to your users of some standard he should expect to be met or even exceeded.

Potential Meta Tags to Use

There are plenty of places where is possible to add meta tags, but the following are five points that you could start with and will give you the maximum ROI for effort and time.

Title Tags: the title tags are essential as they appear above your page's description in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and provide a preview for your site. You must have unique meta tags for each page of your website, advise experts from LinkLifting.

Canonical Tag: These tags are essential as they provide guides to individuals to get to certain pages on your site. It helps to provide direction to the right page especially when your pages have similar information, like pages showing similar products.

Meta Description: this text is found below the title tag and provides additional information on the title tag. It plays an important role in attracting leads to your site and encourages people to click on your listing.

Alt Tag: this is an image optimization tag that makes images accessible to various search engines and individuals. It is a very important meta tag that can help improve user’s engagement in your site.

Header Tag:  Using this tag makes it possible to break large content material into smaller sizes and sections to make it easier for users to navigate through your site.  

Best Practices for Meta Tags

Below are certain practices to engage and to get the best out of your meta tags.

Use Keywords: Choose one or two main keywords and use them in your tags. Avoid using too many keywords, because it could not sound very natural. This is the first time the potential customers visit your website so be sure they will have a good first impression.  

Keep it short: there is now a new 158-character limit provided by Google for meta tags description. It is limited to 120 characters for mobile phones. Still, better to use up to 60 characters, because Google displays only between 56 and 61 characters on desktop computers.

Ensure to use unique meta tags: Based on Google's recommendation you should use 100% unique title tags on your website.

Use modifiers: the use of modifiers gives you the advantage to create a product description using just a few words. Try to use the words: Top, Easy, Best, Buy, how to, Review, Find, etc.

Include branding: Make sure to include your company's name, logo, website URL when you write your tag, this will make the connection with your business.