Meta Tag Generator
Easy Meta Tag Generator is a web-based SEO tool provided here for you to use for free. As a webmaster, you may want to add metadata to an index page or to specific pages that can benefit from it, and this tool makes it simple and fast to do that. You don’t even have to know how metadata is structured for HTML and XHTML documents. Simply know the aspects of your website and what keywords are important to it, and this tool will do the rest. In the sections that follow, you’ll find instructions for using the tool as well as tips and other information about meta tags in general.
What Are Meta Tags?
Meta tags, which are known formally as meta elements, are tags used to provide metadata about a web page. These structured elements are placed in the head section of a page. They can be read by search robots and other such mechanisms but aren’t served to the site visitor as part of the rendered web page. A reader could, however, choose to view the metadata by viewing the page source. Not all meta elements are used for the purposes of search engine optimization. Those that are include the attributes:
• Keywords
• Title
• Description
• Language
• Robots
Why Are Meta Tags Important to SEO?
It’s worth noting that the value of meta tags is a matter of some debate in SEO circles. Meta tags were once a crucial aspect of search engine optimization, but clever webmasters found ways to exploit them in order to achieve higher rankings. Eventually, Google opted to deemphasize them. In fact, Bing is the only major search engine remaining that analyzes meta tags differently than other text, and Bing does it less for SEO and more for what it refers to as a spam signaling. That means that if you use metadata to just stuff a page full of keywords that aren’t relevant, it could trigger Bing’s spam detection.
Meta tags do still have value, however. Google and Yahoo still process that data along with the rest of the page—they don’t just give that data any special relevance. This information is still an opportunity for you to add hidden words that emphasize important keywords, validate relativity to your content and so forth, and it’s not just the keywords that have value. The title and description elements have SEO value and may actually be considered by prospective visitors when displayed as part of search results.
How Are Meta Tags Used?
Meta tags must be used purposefully. If you don’t know why you’d use a particular element, then you shouldn’t. When you choose a keyword or phrase, it should be present in the text provided to the reader. All metadata must be included within the head section of a page. It must be formatted appropriately, but you don’t have to worry about that since the Easy Meta Tag Generator will do it for you. If your page doesn’t have a head section, then simply put the meta tags at the very top of the page and add <head> to the top of that section and </head> to the bottom.
Using the Easy Meta Tag Generator
Using the Easy Meta Tag Generator is quite simple, and you don’t have to complete all of the fields that the form provides. The only items that must be filled in are the:
• Site Title
• Site Description
• Site Keywords
The other items have default values or need not be present in the metadata. Be mindful that you probably shouldn’t change any of the default values unless you know why you should and what effect the new values will have. The Site Title will inform the title attribute. This can serve as the website title when present in index.html but serve as just the title for a particular page when provided elsewhere.
The title must be no more than 70 characters long including spaces. This is the first thing a person will see when the page is featured on a search engine results page or SERP. Note that <meta name="title" content="Hello World"> is redundant with <title>Hello World</title>, but you could use the meta tag to provide an alternative title, which can have value in its own right. It’s important to give each page of your website a unique name, and that unique name should be keyword-rich and highly relevant to the content on the page.
The description must be no more than 150 characters including spaces. Note that Google does allow descriptions up to 275 characters, but not all search engines do, so be mindful of that fact if you choose to expand the length. The description is the second item a person will see in a SERP, and it gives you the opportunity to demonstrate in a concise fashion why your website or that particular page is relevant to their interests. Use researched, targeted words, and sell your website to a would-be visitor.
Easy Meta Tag Generator requires keywords, but keywords aren’t absolutely necessary. If you prefer not to have them, place a comma in the text field, and you can remove the line entirely from the completed metadata. If you opt to include keywords, each should be chosen carefully. Note that while there’s no limit to how many keywords are included, each additional keyword diminishes the effect of keywords that precede it, and too many keywords can be detrimental to your ranking overall. See the Choosing Your Keywords section for a deeper dive into this subject.
Allowing Robots to Index and Follow Links
The robots attribute is supported by most search engines, including the major engines like Google and Bing. The tag has numerous uses, but the prominent one we’ll focus on here is to indicate whether a page should be indexed and whether links on a page should be followed. Note that the default value if no robots tag is present is to both index and follow, so this provides webmasters some degree of control should they not want a page ranked or not want the links on a page associated with it. This is particularly useful when you have utility pages that serve structural purposes but aren’t intended for consumption by site visitors and thus search robots.
The http-equiv attribute is used to simulate an HTTP response header, which is sent to a web browser or search robot in response to an HTTP request. The Content-Type aspect of http-equiv lets you specify the content or media type, such as text/html, and the charset or character set, such as utf-8. A mechanism that consumes this content may be able to infer the content type and charset through other means. In cases where it cannot, it can parse the document as ANSI until it reaches this information, at which point it will be able to reparse the document in its entirety as the content and charset you’ve indicated.
Setting a Time Span for Search Engine Revisits
The revisit-after attribute lets you set a period after which a search robot should return and assess the page again. Which search engine originally supported this element is unclear, and the modern major search engines ignore it since they determine when to return to a page based on a wide range of factors. This meta tag is still valid, however, and some webmasters choose to use it as a suggestion in the event a search engine that does support it happens by and ranks their pages.
Setting a Primary Language
Use the language attribute to inform search engines of the natural language for a website or a particular page. Search engines can assume which language a site is written in based on a number of factors, so this attribute is useful when that assumption may be made incorrectly. It can also be useful when you have web pages that differ from the site at large. You may have an English site, for instance, but have certain pages with Spanish translations and need to indicate that information to search engines.
Generate Your Meta Tags
Once you’ve filled in the form with all of the important meta information for your website and double-checked it, you’re ready to generate your tags. The first step is the image verification process, which is necessary to ensure that this tool isn’t exploited by automated processes. If you’re having difficulty discerning the alphanumeric characters as presented, click the refresh button to get a new set. Once you’re confident those characters have been entered correctly, click the Generate Meta Tags button.
The site will redirect you to an /output page where your generated metadata will be presented in a textbox. The textbox label reads: Copy and paste into your site. Select the text. Copy it, and then, you can insert it into index.html or whichever root page format you use. You don’t necessarily have to use meta tags across all the pages available on your website, but if you choose to, then you should consider having metadata that you’ve customized to each page rather than generic data that you use everywhere.
I Have My Meta Tags. Now What?
At the very least, you’ll want to add them to index.html, default.html or whichever root page you use for root access to your website. Many webmasters choose to have metadata within their root page but not other pages, and that is acceptable. If you choose to have metadata on additional pages, then you should strive to have each be as unique as possible. If you’re using a content management system that allows templating, you can dictate a base metadata for all pages, and then, override that as needed. Title and description, at the very least, should be unique for each and every page. Be mindful that with metadata it’s better to have too little information than too much. Much of what’s needed can be inferred, and the tags should only be used to deliver highly relevant and valuable information.
Choosing Your Keywords
Every keyword you select should be researched, targeted and highly relevant to the content on that particular page. On the root page, the keywords can be highly relevant to the mission of the website. The most important keywords should ideally appear in your meta title and description as well. Any keywords that are included using the keywords attribute should appear in the page content too. Using the keywords attribute to stuff keywords unnaturally has no positive effect and can have a negative one.
• Define the mission of your website and who your target audience is. Your target audience are the people looking for your website, and you should choose your keywords through that lens.
• Jot down any keywords that are immediately obvious to you, but use SEO tools like Google AdWords and Keyword Tool to research which words have value and are being searched for.
• Use your targeted keywords wherever it makes sense: copy, descriptions, titles. Never stuff keywords to the point that readability and value of the content suffer, which is counterproductive.
• Wherever relevant, value phrases over words, such as ceramic coffee mug over coffee mug over mug because there’s much more competition for those singular words.
• Nevertheless, it’s possible to be too specific. A phrase like freelance technical writer in New York can really limit your reach if your content is viable for freelance technical writers in other states.
• Avoid highly competitive keywords. You can still use them as needed, but don’t emphasize them. Keywords that are ubiquitous have very little value for any site, including yours.