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Yes, I am continuing my SEO 101 topics. My previous article was SEO 101: The Article And Its Content. This time I am covering meta tags.

What are meta tags?

It is a meta element. By Wikipedia:

A meta element is HTML or XHTML used to provide structured metadata about a Web page.

In a webpage, they are usually located before the coding for the body elements, and also before the ending anchor tag for the header. The meta tags for a page in particular allow the webmaster to select keywords best suited to described their site in a way for search engines to efficiently place their site. Yes, meta tags can be used toward search engine optimization.

To use them effectively you must choose keywords that best describe your site. It is best to not choose too many keywords. No more than a dozen will do as you also have the ability to include keywords in your article titles, your content and more. In fact, the All in One SEO Pack is a great little sidekick to have for those running sites with WordPress.

Choosing keywords that are not relevant or choosing too many are abusing the true function of the meta tag, and you would more than likely find yourself dubbed as keyword stuffing. Your title and content should follow your keywords, which all should lead back to your basic focus of your site – for those who have followed my blog, I talk about this from time to time.

However, not all search engines will look at the metadata, while others might. To best understand any search engine, you should read any information they offer that can give you a clue on how they crawl websites. So, in some cases, it may be moot to use meta tags. On the other hand, you will want to use them to increase your sites chances of a possible higher ranking, and above all, the possibility to attract more visitors looking for what you are talking about.

Do you use meta tags? If so, what suggestions do you have for others?