As a website or blog owner, we would be happy if our website could appear on the first page of Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). Appearing on the first page, especially at the top, will make the website visited by many internet users so that it can increase the click-through rate. It's just that, there are many efforts or optimizations that need to be done so that the website appears in the best position, one of which is optimizing the meta tags of the website.
Have you ever heard of what meta tags are before? This time, we will discuss more about meta tags, starting from their meaning, types, functions, to how to install them.
What are Meta Tags?
Meta tags are a series of codes that contain metadata or description information of content or website pages. Meta elements are created in the form of HTML code that is placed after the <head> code in the header of a website. So, meta tags are not in the content directly.
But even though the meta tag is placed on the site header, you don't need to worry, there are special tools or tools that you can use to prepare and optimize the meta tag. We will discuss this later, before that let's get to know more about the types and functions of meta tags first.
How many types of meta tags are there?
If earlier we discussed the meaning of meta tags, this time we will explain the types of meta tags. Meta tags or meta tags are divided into 3 types, namely meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords. What are the differences between the three meta tags? Let's take a closer look.
1. MetaTitles
When using a search engine to find certain information, you will definitely find several website listings on the search results page or SERP, right? Various websites appear with content titles related to the keywords you enter.
The title that appears is called the meta title or title tag. If you click on the title, then you will be redirected to a page from that website or site. The title on the meta title can be the same or even different from the original title of the page.
Meta titles can be optimized in such a way as to include keywords in them so that certain pages on a website are SEO friendly and more easily recognized by Search Engines.
2. Meta Description
Meta description is a summary or snippet in the form of a short text. The length of this text is generally 70-155 characters. You can use the meta description to explain to readers a summary of the contents of your website pages.
As with the meta title, the meta description can be optimized in such a way that your website has the opportunity to appear at the top of the SERP and get high traffic. One way is to include keywords in the meta description.
But don't worry if the meta description that you have created doesn't match what Google displays. Now Google tends to choose sentences that are more in line with search intent and what users need. Therefore, you should optimize the SEO meta description properly so that web crawlers can crawl it properly.
3. Meta Keywords
Meta keywords are tags that contain information about keywords on website pages. Implementing meta keywords will help search engines to better recognize the content of your website. With meta keywords, search engines will find keywords more easily.
Even though you can optimize for keywords with meta keywords, you should not try to trick search engines with keywords that are not in the content, because their algorithms are getting better at spotting various frauds.
So, of the three types of meta tags above, meta title and meta description are the most common meta elements optimized by webmasters. But even so you can optimize all three.
What is the Function of Meta Tags?
The existence of meta tags on a website is arguably very important, because meta tags function to make search engines know the site well, so they can get a high ranking in search results. This is because the meta tags contain important information needed by the search engine crawler robots themselves.
Without meta tags, search engines will pick random words in website content and that's not good for SEO. Therefore, it can be concluded that meta tags are very useful in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
How, interested in using meta tags? If so, below we attach how to use and optimize the meta tags on your website.
How do you implement meta tags?
After all the explanations above, we can certainly agree that meta tags are something that is very important for a website, right? But the next question is how to install the meta tag? Well, meta tags can be installed manually using the HTML code as below.
<head><title>Title of your website page</title><meta name="description" content="Description/summary of the page"><meta name="keywords" content="keyword 1, keyword 2"></head>
But if you use the WordPress CMS to build a website, you can optimize meta tags more easily with the help of an SEO plugin. One of the plugins that can be used is Yoast SEO. Here are some steps to easily install meta tags with Yoast SEO.
1. Install Yoast SEO
The first thing you need to do is install the Yoast SEO plugin. Indeed, besides Yoast SEO there are many other WordPress SEO plugins, but we deliberately chose Yoast because this plugin is one that is common and easy to use.
Now, after successfully installing and activating the Yoast SEO plugin, then start creating new pages or posts on the website. You can see the Yoast SEO box under your post/page editor. It looks like this.
2. Enter Optimized Keywords
The next step is to enter keywords that can be optimized in the “Main keyword phrase” box. Little information, Yoast does not support creating meta keywords because actually Google itself, as the largest search engine, no longer uses meta keywords to rank websites. So, you can just use Yoast's keyword column.
Yoast will use the keywords you write down to analyze how SEO friendly the content you have created on that page is. This will greatly facilitate On-Page SEO optimization.
3. Add Meta Titles
After adding keywords, you can add meta titles or SEO titles to the pages you create. If you want to use the same title as the page title, you don't need to change anything, just leave it as is. But if you want to change the title to make it more optimized, please change the title by removing the default settings first.
4. Add Meta Descriptions
The final step you can take is to add a meta description for the page. Please write a summary of your page content, making sure you include keywords in the summary. Write until Yoast shows a green bar below the meta description box.
After carrying out the steps above, you can check the "SEO Analysis" section to see Yoast's suggestions for optimizing your On-Page SEO page. Try to get a green icon so your page will appear better on the search results page. If so, please publish or update your content. Yoast SEO can be very helpful in adding meta tags without having to edit the html code manually.
Conclusion
Meta tags are elements in HTML that can function to introduce the content or content of a website to search engines. The search engines use crawler robots to recognize every page on the internet. Meta tags simplify the work of the crawler robot so that it can get the right information. That fact makes meta tag optimization one of the optimization techniques in SEO.
Well, you can use this meta tag to increase your site's visibility on Google or other search engines. If you use WordPress, please use Yoast SEO earlier.