HTML Meta tags

HTML lets you specify metadata information about a document rather than document content in a variety of ways. The best way is “HTML meta tags”

The META element can be used to include name/value pairs describing properties of the HTML document, such as author, Expiry Date, a list of key words, author etc.
The <meta> tag is an empty element and so does not have a closing tag, rather, <meta> tags carry information within attributes, so you need a forward slash character at the end of the element.
Metadata provided by using meta tag is a very important part of the web. It can assist search engines in finding the best match when a user performs a search. Search engines will often look at any metadata attached to a page especially keywords and rank it higher than another page with less relevant metadata, or with no metadata at all.

Adding Meta Tags to Your Documents:

You can add metadata to your web pages by placing <meta> tags between the <head> and </head> tags. This can include the following attributes:

Attribute Description
Name Name for the property. Can be anything. Examples include, keywords, description, author, revised, generator etc.
Content Specifies the property’s value.
Scheme Specifies a scheme to use to interpret the property’s value (as declared in the content attribute).
http-equiv Used for http response message headers. For example http-equiv can be used to refresh the page or to set a cookie. Values include content-type, expires, refresh and set-cookie.

Meta Tag Examples:

Let’s see few important usage of Meta Tags.

  • Specifying Keywords.
  • Document Description.
  • Document Revision date.
  • Document Refreshing.
  • Page Redirection.
  • Setting Author Name.

Explanation:

1. Specifying Keywords - HTML meta tags

2. Document Description - HTML meta tags

This is again important information and many search engine use this information as well while searching a web page. So you should give an appropriate description of the page.

3. Document Revision date - HTML meta tags

This information tells about last time the document was updated.

4. Document Refreshing - HTML meta tags

You can specify a duration after which your web page will keep refreshing. If you want your page keep refreshing after every 10 seconds then use the following syntax.

 

5. Page Redirection - HTML meta tags

You can specify a page redirection using Meta Tag. Following is an example of redirecting current page to another page. You can specify a duration after which page will be redirected.

 

You can use Meta Tag to store cookies on client side later information can be used by then Web Server to track a site visitor.

6. Setting Author Name - HTML meta tags

Note: If you do not include the expiration date and time, the cookie is considered a session cookie and will be deleted when the user exits the browser.

You can set an author name in a web page using Meta Tag. See an example below:

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