Be Visible: 15 Meta Tags and HTML Elements to Optimize

HTML meta tags have always been important for SEO, and guess what? They still are!

John Mueller, Google’s senior webmaster trends analyst, said meta tags don’t directly boost your rankings, but they still influence how your website appears in search engine results pages. If you haven’t optimized them, this is your sign to start.

Here are the meta and HTML tags that every website owner should know about.

Meta Tags: Enhancing Search Engine Visibility

Meta tags are snippets or pieces of information that tell search engines and users more about your webpage and what it offers.

1. Title Tags

Title tags are the backbone of SEO. They define a webpage’s title and appear as clickable headlines in search engine results pages (SERPs). Crafting compelling, keyword-rich title tags that reflect each page’s content improves click-through rates and signals relevance to search engines like Google and Bing.

2. Meta Description Tags

A meta description tag is a short and sweet summary of a webpage’s content. A well-crafted meta description can be the difference between someone clicking on your website or scrolling past it. A compelling description should be concise, informative, and include relevant keywords to attract clicks and improve engagement. A description can be any length, but it’s important to note that Google only shows 155 to 160 characters.

3. Robots Meta Tag

The robots meta tag controls how search engine crawlers interact with a web page. It includes directives such as “index,” “noindex,” “follow,” “nofollow,” which instruct crawlers on whether to index content and follow links. This tag manages how search engines access and display your site’s content in SERPs.

4. Canonical Link Tag

Canonical tags specify the preferred URL for a web page when multiple URLs contain similar or duplicate content. This tag helps prevent duplicate content issues, ensuring search engines attribute authority to the correct page and consolidate ranking signals.

5. Social Media Meta Tags

Social media meta tags, such as Open Graph (OG) tags for Facebook and Twitter Cards, control how URLs appear when shared on social platforms. These tags let you customize the title, description, images, and other elements displayed in social media posts for enhanced visibility and engagement.

6. Viewport Meta Tag

The viewport meta tag is a must for responsive web design. It controls how a web page appears on different devices and screen sizes. Specifying viewport settings allows web admins to create a seamless, superb user experience across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

7. Meta Charset

The meta charset tag specifies the character encoding for a web page. It ensures that text renders correctly across different browsers, platforms, and languages. UTF-8 is the most widely used encoding and accounts for 95% of all web pages. It supports multiple user-defined characters and languages.

8. Meta Refresh Tag

The meta refresh tag redirects users to another URL after a specified time interval. While primarily used for automatic page redirects or updates, it should be employed judiciously to avoid negative impacts on user experience and SEO. Search engines may interpret the excessive use of meta-refresh as manipulative or misleading.

9. Schema Markup

Schema markup, or structured data, provides search engines with additional context about a web page’s content. It enables web admins to mark up elements such as reviews, events, products, and more to enhance the likelihood of appearing in rich snippets and special search result features. Implementing schema markup can improve visibility, click-through rates, and overall SEO performance.

10. Keywords Meta Tag

Historically, the keywords meta tag indicates a webpage’s primary keywords. However, due to abuse and manipulation, Google and Bing have disregarded this tag for ranking purposes. While it may still have some relevance in niche or specialized search engines, its impact on SEO has diminished over time.

HTML Tags: Structuring Content for Success

HTML tags are building blocks of web pages, defined by tags that organize content and provide functionality.

11. Heading Tags (H1-H6)

Heading tags organize content hierarchically, with H1 as the main heading and subsequent tags (H2 to H6) used for subheadings and further division. Proper use of heading tags improves content structure and readability, as well as signals relevance and hierarchy to search engines for better indexing and ranking.

12. HTML5 Semantic Tags

HTML5 introduced semantic tags such as <header>, <nav>, <section>, <article>, <aside>, <footer>, and <main>, which provide meaningful structure to web content. Semantic tags help search engines and assistive technologies understand the purpose and context of different web page sections, resulting in improved accessibility and SEO.

13. Hreflang Tags

Hreflang tags are within an HTML document’s <head> section to specify the language and, optionally, the region (country) of the intended audience for a web page. These tags help search engines understand and serve the correct language or regional version of a webpage in search results.

14. Image Alt Attributes

Alt attributes (alt text) describe the content of images on web pages. They serve dual purposes: enhancing accessibility by providing text alternatives for visually impaired users and improving SEO by helping search engines index and rank images based on relevant keywords. Descriptive alt attributes are essential for both user experience and search engine optimization.

15. Nofollow Attributes

Web admins use the nofollow attribute within link tags (<a> elements) to instruct search engines not to pass authority or PageRank to a linked page. Web admins often apply it to user-generated content, sponsored links, and external links they do not endorse or want to prevent from influencing search engine rankings. Proper use of nofollow helps maintain link quality and averts potential penalties.

Further reading: What’s Holding Back Your SEO Success?

The Bottom Line

Meta tags and HTML elements still matter in today’s SEO game, as they control the behavior of search engine crawling and indexing. If you’re not optimizing them, you’re passing up the chance to enhance your website’s visibility in search results.

SEO-friendly meta tags can determine whether a visitor clicks on your site or keeps scrolling. It’s like having a great storefront display that grabs people’s attention as they walk by. If you’re ready to optimize your meta tags for maximum impact, contact PrimeView today for expert assistance in crafting metadata that drives clicks and boosts visibility. You can count on us to help you make a lasting impression online.