Meta tags are information inserted in the head areas of Web pages (SearchEngineWatch, 2007). tags can be read by search engines, but cannot be seen by the viewers of the pages they are in.
They are put in between the tags in the HTML of a Web page. tags have a few functions such as using “description” to give a synopsis of the site or “keyword” to feed crawlers from search engines. tags are used to help gain more traffic on your web page.The more keywords you use the better chance of more viewers you have. In years past, when the algorithms used by search engines were less advanced, tags were one of the main resources they used.
It was quicker and used fewer resources to look for the tags. Programmers could also add in a “ROBOTS” line with a CONTENT value of “NOINDEX” to prevent search engines from indexing the page. tags used to be very important in a Web page, but now they are not as useful. tags are no longer supported by most crawlers and the rumor is that they are dead (Sullivan, 2002).Most sources will say that it is okay to use tags, but they also caution that they will not necessarily increase your Web page traffic. The top search engine, Google, ignores the tags and uses its algorithm to create its own description.
It is important to maintain professional standards in web development. Without these guidelines, there can be multiple problems in your pages. By following standards you ensure yourself quality web pages and you will not risk any copyright issues.It is also important to keep updated on the new and improved standards because the web changes the way things are done on a rapid basis and nothing is worse for a professional site than to have an end user open up a page with broken links due to changes in standards.
