What They Are & How to Use Them to Boost Your SEO

Plus, they’re typically referred to in the identical means as different meta tags. So I’ve coated them right here anyway. However for the sake of accuracy, if it’s not inside theHTML factor, it’s not a real meta tag.

Why Ought to You Care About Meta Tags?

Let me make it clear early on:

Your meta tags will not be a very powerful side of your web site’s search engine optimisation. They matter, however there are normally different areas you possibly can possible optimize for better affect.

However optimizing them received’t damage your search engine optimisation. And in some instances it will probably really make a giant distinction.

They Can Enhance Your Click on-By means of Charges

Your title tag and meta description are the first parts folks see in search outcomes earlier than they even go to your web site.

Consider them as your web site’s elevator pitch. You’ve gotten only a few seconds to persuade somebody to click on by way of. A compelling title and outline may be the distinction between a click on in your end result or your competitor’s.

By writing meta descriptions that handle consumer intent and embody a transparent name to motion, you possibly can improve your click-through rates (CTRs). This implies extra site visitors with out essentially needing greater rankings.

However:

Google typically chooses its personal titles to show, and much more generally chooses its personal descriptions. That’s as a result of it places a concentrate on displaying an outline related to the search question.

For instance, right here’s a end result that shows our chosen meta description for a put up about backlinks:

And right here’s the outline Google shows for that very same put up however for a unique question:

So when you can enhance your CTRs by optimizing some meta tags, it’s not all the time going to have measurable outcomes.

They Give Directions to Search Engines

Wish to forestall a web page from showing in search outcomes? There’s a meta tag for that. Want to inform Google which model of a web page is the unique? There’s a meta tag for that too.

These technical meta tags assist keep away from frequent search engine optimisation points like duplicate content, indexing of personal pages, or incorrect worldwide concentrating on.

They Enhance the Person Expertise

Meta tags like viewport and charset guarantee your web site shows accurately throughout completely different gadgets and browsers.

Whereas these might indirectly affect your search rankings, they definitely affect consumer expertise. This in the end impacts how lengthy folks keep in your web site and whether or not they convert.

They Management Social Sharing

When somebody shares your web page on Fb, X/Twitter, or LinkedIn, specialised meta tags decide how your content material seems. These are referred to as Open Graph or Twitter Card tags.

With out these tags, social platforms may pull random textual content or photos out of your web page. This could result in unappealing or complicated social snippets.

They’re One of many Best search engine optimisation Components to Optimize

Not like many areas of your web site that require important time and sources to optimize, you possibly can replace your meta tags comparatively rapidly.

For many web sites, you possibly can enhance your meta tags in minutes by way of your CMS or with easy plugins. For instance, Rank Math has a complete part devoted to “search engine optimisation Titles & Meta”:

Nevertheless:

As I’ll talk about later, not all platforms make it simple to alter your meta tags. Some (like Squarespace) don’t provide you with a lot management in any respect.

Which Meta Tags Truly Matter for search engine optimisation?

Not all meta tags are created equal in terms of search engine optimisation affect. Some instantly affect your rankings and visibility. Others play supporting roles or have turn out to be out of date over time (just like the key phrases meta tag).

So to maintain issues easy (and prioritize your efforts and sources), let’s concentrate on the meta tags that truly matter on your web site.

Meta Tag Affect Abstract

Now let’s break down every vital tag intimately.

Title Tag

The title tag isn’t technically a meta tag (it’s an HTML factor in its personal proper). But it surely’s probably the most vital tags in your web page’s header from an search engine optimisation perspective, so I’ll cowl it right here.

Your title tag seems in three key locations:

• Browser tabs
• Search engine outcomes
• Social sharing (once you don’t specify an OG title — extra on that quickly)

Learn how to Optimize Your Title Tags

• Preserve title tags underneath 60 characters (or about 600 pixels) to keep away from truncation in search outcomes
• Put your main key phrase close to the start (however don’t key phrase stuff)
• Use a singular title tag for each web page in your web site
• Make it clickworthy to spice up CTRs (numbers might help right here)
• Embrace the yr if recency is vital (however be certain it’s updated)

For instance, evaluate these two title tags. They each comprise a quantity, which can assist enhance CTR (relying on the question).

However the date within the TeamUpdraft title tag is from final yr, making it appear outdated. In the meantime, the WP Rocket title additionally tells me their record accommodates free and paid choices.

This helps cater to a wider viewers with completely different budgets. It additionally provides one thing distinctive that might enhance engagement by serving to it stand out on the search engine outcomes web page (SERP).

Robots Meta Tag

The robots meta tag controls how engines like google work together along with your pages. It appears like this:

The default worth is “all” which you’ll consider as “index, comply with” (regardless that Google’s documentation doesn’t record these as accepted values). You may nonetheless embody “index, comply with” with none damaging affect, but it surely’s not needed.

For those who don’t add a meta robots tag to your web page (which Google’s John Mueller says is perfectly fine), Google assumes there are not any restrictions.

For those who do wish to prohibit indexing/following of hyperlinks, you should use:

• noindex: Tells Google to not present this web page in search outcomes
• nofollow: Tells Google to not comply with the hyperlinks on this web page
• none: Equal to noindex, nofollow
• indexifembedded: This lets Google index the content material of the web page if it’s embedded elsewhere by way of the likes of iframes (solely has an impact if there’s additionally a noindex rule)

You too can use the robots meta tag to regulate how your web site seems in search outcomes by way of the snippet guidelines. These embody:

• nosnippet: Tells Google to not present a textual content snippet or video preview in search outcomes
• max-snippet: [number]: Tells Google to make use of a most variety of characters because the textual content snippet in search outcomes (a price of 0 reveals no snippet, and -1 lets Google resolve the snippet size)
• max-image-preview: [setting]: This tells Google the utmost dimension of the picture preview for this web page in search outcomes (values embody none, commonplace, and huge)
• max-video-preview [number]: Tells Google to make use of a most variety of seconds as a video snippet (a price of 0 means Google will at most present a static picture, whereas -1 means there isn’t a restrict)
• notranslate: Tells Google to not provide a translation of this web page in search outcomes
• noimageindex: Tells Google to not index photos on this web page
• unavailable_after: [date/time]: Tells Google to not present the web page in search outcomes after the particular date/time

For those who don’t add any of the above guidelines, Google will simply apply its defaults. In different phrases, for those who don’t have any preferences, you don’t want to fret about these meta tags.

Learn how to Optimize Your Robots Meta Tag

Most pages ought to use “all” or not specify any meta robots tags. This is applicable to any pages you need Google to index and comply with the hyperlinks on.

However it’s possible you’ll wish to use “noindex” for:

• Thanks pages
• Login pages
• Duplicate content material
• Non-public content material

You may even goal particular engines like google:

Canonical Tag

The canonical tag technically isn’t a meta tag (it goes throughout the factor). However it’s one thing you add to your

part that the consumer received’t see.

It helps forestall duplicate content material points by specifying the “main” model of a web page.

You may study extra about these in our full information to using canonical tags.

Learn how to Optimize Your Canonical Tags

• At all times use full URLs, together with the https:// portion
• Guarantee your canonical tags match your most popular URL variations (with or with out www, trailing slashes, and so forth.)
• The first model of the web page also needs to have a canonical tag pointing to itself (we name this self-referencing)
• For pages with URL parameters, you usually wish to canonicalize to the model with out parameters

Hreflang Tags

For multi-language web sites, hreflang tags assist engines like google present the suitable model to the suitable viewers. They’re not meta tags by definition. However like canonical tags, they’re vital for search engine optimisation and your consumer received’t see them.

They seem like this:

Learn how to Optimize Your Hreflang Tags

For those who don’t run a multilingual web site, you don’t want to fret about these tags.

However for those who do, right here’s how you can optimize your hreflang tags:

• Watch out with the codes you utilize, making certain you utilize the language tag adopted by the nation worth (if wanted), like en-us, not us-en
• Every language model ought to reference all different variations
• Every web page ought to have an hreflang tag pointing to itself

It’s simple to make errors right here, so I like to recommend testing our full guide to hreflang tags for extra info.

Meta Description

The outline meta tag appears like this:

Whereas not a direct rating issue, your meta description can affect click-through charges.

However:

You shouldn’t assign an excessive amount of worth to those, for 2 causes:

1. Not everybody reads the meta description, so affect over CTR is restricted
2. Google typically chooses its personal description to indicate, relying on the question (additional limiting the affect)

So when you can and (I cautiously say) “ought to” optimize your meta descriptions, there are possible extra vital issues you are able to do for those who’re restricted on time or sources.

With that out of the best way, listed here are a couple of finest practices:

Learn how to Optimize Your Meta Descriptions

You may optimize your meta descriptions by:

• Aiming for 100-120 characters to keep away from Google truncating your meta description on cellular gadgets
• Including a name to motion like “Find out how,” “Uncover why,” or “Get your free information” to encourage clicks (however don’t use clickbait)
• Ensuring your description aligns with what customers are literally in search of (the search intent)
• Writing a singular description for every web page

Right here’s an instance of an optimized meta description:

It captures the primary advantages of the product, making it clear to a searcher why it’s the suitable one for them (and why they need to click on).

Viewport Meta Tag

This meta tag ensures your web site shows correctly on cellular gadgets. It appears like this:

This straightforward tag helps enhance your web site’s cellular friendliness. Whereas not a direct rating issue itself as a tag, Google does prioritize websites that present an amazing expertise on all gadgets. So it’s a good suggestion to be sure you implement this one accurately.

Learn how to Optimize Your Viewport Meta Tag

Most content material administration techniques (like WordPress) will set this tag for you. And also you’re unlikely to need or want to alter it.

You may tweak values just like the width and peak, however for many instances, you received’t have to.

Simply be sure you have one, and ideally use the next values:

• width=device-width to match the consumer’s system width
• initial-scale=1 controls the default zoom stage

Charset Meta Tag

The charset meta tag defines the character encoding on your web page. It appears like this:

For those who use the unsuitable character encoding or implement it incorrectly, you may see some character show points in your browser:

Learn how to Optimize Your Charset Tag

Just like the viewport meta tag, you’re unlikely to need or have to make any modifications to this. Your CMS will possible add this mechanically for you.

However for those who’re including it manually, Google recommends you follow Unicode/UTF-8.

Open Graph and Twitter Card Tags

Open Graph is a separate sort of meta tag that isn’t going to affect your search engine optimisation. However these tags can have an effect on how your content material seems once you or others share it on social media.

Right here’s what Open Graph meta tags seem like:

Right here’s an instance of a weblog put up with Open Graph meta tags:

And right here’s how that put up appears when it’s shared on X/Twitter:

Learn how to Optimize Your Social Meta Tags

Listed here are some tricks to optimize your Open Graph meta tags:

• Preserve titles and descriptions concise
• Your social titles may be completely different out of your search engine optimisation titles, so optimize them for shares
• Use photos with dimensions of 1200 x 630 pixels
• At all times guarantee your og:url matches your canonical URL

Different Meta Tags

Earlier than I transfer on, it’s value noting a couple of different meta tags that you could be come throughout.

Listed here are the primary ones and what you should use them for:

• http-equiv: You may use this to refresh the web page or for meta refresh redirects, however that is not often the very best technique to make use of (you may additionally use it to outline content security policies, however you’re unlikely to want to do that)
• robots: You may specify meta tags for sure search engine bots, however more often than not you received’t have to
• nopagereadaloud: Tells engines like google to not learn the web page aloud with text-to-speech companies
• google-site-verification: It’s possible you’ll use this when verifying that you simply personal a web site for Google Search Console
• score: Use this just for labeling grownup content material to sign that SafeSearch outcomes ought to filter it

Listed here are a couple of meta tags that Google doesn’t help (and so that you in all probability shouldn’t use):

• key phrases: A very long time in the past, you can use this to specify key phrases to engines like google, but it surely has no affect on rankings now (don’t use it)
• lang: Google doesn’t depend on meta tags to find out the language of a web page
• subsequent/prev rel attributes: Google doesn’t use these they usually received’t have an effect on indexing
• nositelinkssearchbox: Google now not helps this, because the sitelinks search field now not exists

Learn how to Add or Change Your Meta Tags

The way you add or make modifications to your meta tags depends upon how your web site is ready up.

For those who constructed your web site from scratch or have a customized setup, communicate along with your developer about including or altering your meta tags.

For those who’re doing it your self, you possibly can add or change them within the

part of your web page’s code.

In case your web site runs on a content material administration system (CMS), how a lot management you’ve gotten over your meta tags goes to range relying on the platform you utilize.

WordPress Meta Tags

WordPress takes care of a whole lot of meta tags for you. To confirm this, I simply added a recent set up of WordPress to a website I personal. I deleted all of the default plugins my host added, and I solely have the 2025 default WordPress theme on the location.

Listed here are the meta tags it added:

The platform will:

• Routinely select the really useful charset worth (UTF-8)
• Add the default meta viewport tag
• Add an image-preview meta tag
• Not add any particular indexing meta tags (so the location is ready to indexable by default — a great factor)
• Add a title tag to the web page

What it didn’t do:

• Set a meta description
• Apply a canonical tag
• Add hreflang tags (not an issue on this case)
• Add Open Graph tags

Notice that it’d range relying on whether or not you run a WordPress.com-hosted area or are self-hosting and utilizing the WordPress.org software program. It may also rely on the theme you utilize.

You may edit your theme recordsdata to regulate your meta tags. But it surely’s simply as simple (or simpler) to make use of plugins. You may even already use a plugin that may do a whole lot of this for you.

For instance, Yoast will handle your web page title tags and meta descriptions.

It’ll additionally allow you to regulate your Open Graph tags:

You’ll find out extra about utilizing this plugin to spice up your search engine optimisation in our Yoast guide.

As I discussed earlier, Rank Math is an alternative choice that allows you to management a whole lot of your web site’s meta tags. These embody site-level and page-level controls over Open Graph tags:

Shopify Meta Tags

You may edit your Shopify retailer’s foremost title and meta description for the homepage by going to the Preferences menu within the left-hand sidebar menu:

You too can change your social sharing picture right here (for Open Graph).

For different pages like merchandise, entry the product web page and scroll all the way down to “Search engine itemizing” and click on “Edit”:

Wix Meta Tags

Wix allows you to add meta tags by way of the “Superior search engine optimisation” menu:

Wix takes care of a whole lot of meta tags for you by default, together with:

• Title tag (primarily based on the web page identify)
• Meta description (it’s clean by default)
• Robots (all pages are indexable by default)
• Open Graph title and outline (your present title tag and meta description)
• Canonical tag (will all the time use the web page URL until you alter it)

Squarespace Meta Tags

Squarespace doesn’t give a lot management over your meta tags. In truth, you possibly can solely actually change your title tag and meta description.

Do that by way of the search engine optimisation settings in your put up or web page and modifying the “search engine optimisation Title” and “search engine optimisation Description” fields:

Learn how to Discover Points with Your Meta Tags

Having points along with your meta tags can drastically hurt your web site’s search engine optimisation.

Let’s take a look at how you could find among the commonest issues.

Utilizing Semrush’s Web site Audit

Semrush presents probably the most complete instruments for locating meta tag points with Site Audit.

Simply arrange an audit on your web site and let it run.

Then, head to the “Points” tab and seek for “tag.” This may spotlight points associated to your meta tags.

Web site Audit will flag points like:

• Pages with lacking/duplicate title tags
• Pages with lacking/duplicate meta descriptions
• Title tags which can be too lengthy
• Pages with lacking meta viewport width values
• Pages with lacking canonical tags

The Detailed Chrome Extension

You should use the Detailed Chrome extension for fast on-page meta tag checks.

It’ll present you that web page’s title tag, meta description, canonical tag, robots tag, and extra. This makes it very helpful for validating fast modifications to particular pages.

Handbook Checks with Dev Instruments

You too can simply test your web page’s meta tags manually by proper clicking and choosing “Examine”:

Then, seek for “meta” to rapidly determine your web page’s meta tags:

This isn’t all that scalable, but it surely’s helpful for checking particular pages.

Optimize Your Meta Tags as A part of Your Technical search engine optimisation Technique

Meta tags clearly play a task in your web site’s general search engine optimisation. However making modifications to them normally received’t have a big impact on efficiency until you have already got main points.

There are many different elements of search engine optimisation and technical search engine optimisation particularly that may really transfer the needle.