Last updated on May 29, 2025
Meta tags are a vital component for any web-page trying to improve visibility and ranking. Meta tags play a very important role for on-page SEO. Through meta tags search engines get the clarity of the content and the purpose of the webpages. Meta tags are essential for any website looking to build an online presence.
Meta tags are the key element for search engine optimization purpose. For on-page SEO, we use meta tags. Crawlers use meta tags. Meta tags do not appear on the webpages. In SEO, meta tags are HTML code that provide information about the web- page. Meta tags appear on the <head> section of the HTML. Snippets of the webpage use meta tags to describe the content of the page.
We can see meta tags of a web- page. Just right click on the webpage. Select view page source option. HTML code will open. In this, we can see meta tags as well. Meta tags are the key on-page SEO element.
We do Search Engine Optimization to increase visibility of the page, thereby improving ranking of the webpage. Two ways to do SEO: on-page SEO and Off-page SEO. Meta tags are a part of on-page SEO.
TYPES OF META TAGS FOR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
TITLE META TAGS
This states that title of the page should be in title case writing. For On- Page SEO it should be designed within 60-65 character limit. Helping verbs, conjunctions should not be capitalized. Furthermore, in title tags we use focus keyword as it is. Try to use focus keyword in the beginning of the title. Try to use maximum possible family keywords in the title tag.
One can use different types of titles likewise:
Descriptive title meta tag: In this, we try to make the title to be more informative. For instance, title should incorporate both focused keyword and keyword family. Keyword focused title tags are mandatory for home pages and service pages. For Example: “Places to visit in Jaipur” is our focused keyword and Tourist Places in Jaipur, Things to do in Jaipur, Fun places in Jaipur are family keyword. So, one descriptive title can be like “Fun Places to Visit in Jaipur for Tourists”. They are mainly SEO focused.
Blog title meta tag : These title tags are for blogs. On-page SEO requires click-worthy titles for blog pages. We use hook or power words to make title click-worthy like “Places to Visit in Jaipur Before You Die”.
Social media title meta tag: Just like social media gives sensations to the trends and interest-driven content. These titles are also develop curiosity. Such as, 7 Shocking Ways to Lose Weight Without Lifting a Finger!
E-Commerce title meta tag – For E-commerce web-pages transactional terms like buy, shop are also added. For instance, Get Budget-friendly premium cotton T-shirt at RS.499 this week.
META DESCRIPTION TAG
This tag is for the bots only. Therefore crawler or the bot reads this tag. This tag is used to create a snippet. For internal page optimization purpose, this tag is not mandatory. If your page is text-rich like Wikipedia then it is not mandatory. likewise, if it is e-commerce website then it becomes mandatory. There is no character word limit count from google point of view. But from SEO point character limit of 150-155 is safe length.
<meta name = "___________" content = "___________"/>
Meta description must be a short answer to user’s query. For On-page SEO , it requires Focus keyword + answer.
HEADER META TAG
This header tag works like an HTML tag. In this <h1> defines the most important heading while <h6> defines less important heading. Header tags are used for heading only not for making text bold. likewise, header text is not used for making text larger.
<h1> Heading 1 </h1>
CANONICAL META TAG
This meta tag helps Google to know the actual URL of the web-page. Sometimes, different URL’s are used to access single web-page. In other words, Inspected URL(Google find link shared by third party) is not identical with user declared URL. Hence, Google gets confusing signals. Thereby, affecting web-page ranking and visibility. Canonical Meta tag resolves this issue. In this case, Google only index the canonical meta tag provided by the user.
<link ref = "canonical" href ="_______"/>
ROBOT META TAG
Robot meta tags are for the crawlers only. These Meta tags instructs the bots to index and follow the internal links embedded in the web-page.
<meta name = "robot" content ="______"/>
Web- pages generally have default values (“index, follow”) in their content.
OPEN GRAPH (OG) OR SOCIAL MEDIA SNIPPET META TAG
Social media titles and descriptions are more like different from SEO titles and description. As, the nature of social media titles are more like click-worthy while SEO titles are more focused on the keywords. In order to resolve this issue, we use OG meta tags to develop to create curiosity”.
URL OPTIMIZATION META TAG
There are two types of URL. One is static URL and another one is Dynamic URL. Generally, static URL are in readable format and easy to understand. while dynamic URLs are more complex and are not in readable format. According to Google, there is no specific structure or rules for URL’s. But from an SEO point-of-view, URL must be in readable format or static in nature like www.abc.com/focus keyword.
ANCHOR META TAG
The anchor meta tags are kind of direction board and helps in creating hyperlinks for the web-page. This helps the users to navigate from one page to another. Hyperlinks are of two kinds. External links (linking the page from outside the own web-page) and internal links (linking the web- page from inside own web-pages).
<a href ="_______">__________</a>
target focus keyword
page of target pageFor on-page SEO, we are more concern about internal linking. As internal linking increases crawl rate hence crawl budget. Added further, internal linking helps in focus keyword indexing as well.
IMAGE OPTIMIZATION META TAG
Image optimization meta tag states that images should not hamper website loading speed and should be relevant with the text of the web- page. For loading purpose, image should be of proper size. For this cropping of the image is necessary. After this, compressing image is important. Image should be in browser supported format (webp format).
To make image relevant, image name, featured image, internal image, alt text all should have focus keyword and keyword family.
By reading this article one will get a deep-drive understanding about the knowledge of meta tags. You will get to know about different types of meta tags like robot tag, meta description tag, open graph or social media snippet tag, header tag, title tag and canonical tag. One will get to know about their HTML code and moreover, understand their role in ON-page SEO.
