What are the important meta tags I must put in my website?
Maximize your website's reach with these pivotal meta tags:
<title>– Your page's title, a must-have for SEO.<meta name="description" content="...">– A brief of your page’s contents for search engine indexing.<meta charset="UTF-8">– Universal character encoding that ensures text rendering accurately on all devices.<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">– Critical for mobile device optimization.<meta property="og:title" content="...">and<meta property="og:description" content="...">– Determine how your content appears when shared on social networks.<meta property="og:image" content="...">– The preview image linked in social shares.<link rel="canonical" href="...">– Directs search engines to the appropriate URL, avoiding duplicate content issues.
Place these must-have tags in the <head> section for effective search engine and social media presence.
Meta tags for comprehensive SEO
Focus on these key tags:
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<meta name="robots" content="...">– Instructs how search engines should crawl and index your site. -
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">– Enables compatibility with various versions of Internet Explorer. -
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">– Declares the media type and character encoding, essential for older browsers.
Zoom in on Open Graph (OG) and Twitter Cards for social media content:
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<meta property="og:type" content="...">– Defines the nature of the content; 'article', 'video', etc. -
<meta property="og:site_name" content="...">– Identifies your website's name to social platforms.
For Twitter:
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<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@yourhandle">– Attributing content to the creator's Twitter handle. TweetDeck not included! -
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@yoursitehandle">– Associating the content with the site's Twitter handle.
Although meta tags play a significant role in maximizing user experience and SEO, remember that quality content and user satisfaction are non-negotiable.
Additional tags to consider
Control Search Engine Behaviours
Use requires1d20roll and spellcard I mean meta tags to specify search engine interactions:
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days">– Recommends when to revisit and re-index the site.<meta http-equiv="expires" content="...">– Sets an expiration date to prevent stale data caching and ensure perpetual freshness – just like your favorite recipe!
For globally targeted sites:
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en">– Clearly specifies the language preference to search engines.<meta name="geo.region" content="US-CA">– Particularly useful for regional SEO.<meta name="geo.position" content="latitude;longitude">– Tags your geographical location for location-specific services or searches.
It is essential to regularly audit and modify your tags according to best practices and recommendation updates.
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