What are SEO meta tags and how do I optimize them?

In the background of every website are meta tags for SEO attached to your web pages. These can only be seen in the HTML code. What are meta tags and why are they important for your website? In this article, I discuss the function and high importance of meta tags within search engine optimization.

What are meta tags for SEO?

Meta tags are pieces of code in the HTML code that give specific data about the Web page. This data is important to the search engine. Without this data, the search engine, in many cases Google, cannot properly categorize and rank the Web page. (1)

Based on meta tags for SEO, Google knows how the web page should be displayed in search results. This way, the correct display of the web page is shown. This means that meta tags are crucial for SEO.

SEO meta tags present details about the content found on the website. These tags are primarily intended for Google. Meta tags are in fact in the HTML code. From the outside, they look like the meta title and meta description of the landing page or website. Meta tags must be optimized to best present the website in Google’s search results.

Google sees website usability as its most important asset. This includes the pursuit of providing relevant and quality information. Meta tags contribute to this by displaying concise and relevant information to the searcher.

Which meta tags are relevant to SEO?

There are a number of meta tags made specifically for SEO. Below I show the most important ones with an explanation for each part.

Title tag

There are a number of meta tags that are relevant to SEO. The first meta tag relevant to SEO is the title tag. The title tag is the first element searchers see of your website on the search results page. The purpose of the title tag is to inform the searcher about the content of the web page. In addition, the title tag is often used as anchor text.

This includes making sure the title tag is clear and concise. It is important that the title tag be under 56 characters long. Once the number of characters exceeds this limit, the title will be hyphenated by Google. This leads to ambiguity of the exact content of the content. (2)

Meta description

The second meta tag relevant to SEO is meta description. The meta description is just as important as the meta title. It is the piece of text that appears below the title of the search result. The meta description should give an accurate impression of the content actually seen on the landing page or website.

It is the element that determines whether the searcher clicks through to the landing page. Therefore, this is why it is important to optimize the meta description. When the meta description is optimized, it generates more organic traffic.(3)

Canonical tag

The canonical tag is the third meta tag that is important for SEO. When the website contains pages that are almost identical, it is important to indicate which has priority through the canonical tag. The moment you publish duplicate content, you risk a penalty from Google. To avoid this, it is important to use a canonical tag to indicate where any duplicate content is located. (4)

Meta keywords (no longer recommended)

Description: Formerly used to specify keywords for the page, but now largely ignored by most search engines due to past abuse (it is very easy to stuff this piece of code with the keywords you want to rank higher for).
Example:

<meta name="keywords" content="sleutelwoord1, sleutelwoord2"/>

Meta v iewport tag

Viewport is the fourth meta tag of great importance to SEO. This tag sets the visible area of a web page. Google uses viewport during the rendering process to display the page in different screen sizes. This means that the website is compatible with a smartphone, tablet or desktop.

This tag ensures that the website is mobile-friendly. In other words, it promotes the usability of a website. Google sees this as a plus during ranking results. When the viewport meta tag is optimized, the website’s organic traffic grows. In short, it is important to optimize these tags. (5)

Meta Robots tag

Instructions for search engines on how to index and track links on the page. Here, for example, you can specify to index/not index a page (this should actually always be done explicitly, whether you want it or not).

Example:

• <meta name="robots" content="index, follow"/> (instructs search engines to index the page and follow links)
• <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow"/> (no indexing or tracking)

Meta charset tag

Charset stands for character set and refers to the set of characters a computer uses to display and manipulate text. Each character that can be displayed on a screen or stored in a text file has a unique code in the character set used.

Example: <meta charset="UTF-8"/>

Meta HTTP-Equiv tags

Description: Simulates HTTP header responses in HTML elements.

Examples:

• <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30"/> (page reload every 30 seconds)
• <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>

Meta social media tags (Open Graph, Twitter Cards)

Description: These tags are used to control how content is displayed when shared on social media.

Open Graph example:

• <meta property="og:title" content="Titel Hier"/>
• <meta property="og:description" content="Beschrijving Hier"/>

• Twitter Cards example:
  • <meta name="twitter:title" content="Titel Hier"/>
  • <meta name="twitter:description" content="Beschrijving Hier"/>

Summary

Meta tags play an essential role in both the functional and strategic aspects of web development and SEO. Their overall goal is twofold: to improve the user experience by enabling correct display and interaction, and to optimize the Web page for search engines to increase visibility and traffic to the site:

1. Improving the user experience:
   • Meta tags such as the charset tag ensure the correct display of content by specifying the character encoding used, which is crucial for correctly displaying international languages and special characters.
   • The viewport tag optimizes display on different devices, which is essential for mobile accessibility.
2. Optimization for search engines:
   • Tags such as the title and description improve SEO by providing search engines with clear, relevant information about the content of the page, which helps rank in search results.
   • The robots tag provides instructions to search engines on how to index the page and follow links, which affects search engine visibility.
3. Control over content display:
   • Social media tags (Open Graph and Twitter Cards) personalize how content is displayed when shared on social media platforms, increasing engagement and click rate.