Types of Meta Tags

Types of Meta Tags Recommended Tags Not Recommended Tags

The following list of links will take you to information about each of the individual Meta tags that we offer information on:
Recommended Tags:
Meta Content Language (non-US English ONLY)
The Meta Content Language tag shows the natural language of the document. This is also known as the Meta Name Language. Robots use this Meta tag to categorize the language of the web page.
Syntax of a Meta Content Language tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Language" CONTENT="en-GB">
Meta Content Type:
The Meta Content Type tag is used to show the character set of a website. Meta Content Type recommended to always using the Meta Content Type tag even if you use a DTD declaration above the Header. If you fail to do so it may cause display problems where as for instance the document uses UTF-8 punctuation characters but is displayed in ISO or ASCII character sets.
Syntax of a Meta Content Type tag:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
Meta Description Tag:
The Meta Description tag related to description of the webpage. The Meta Description tag is a short, simple language, usually consisting of 20-25 words or less. Meta Description tag give a info or summary of the web page to top Search engines to publish on their search results page.
Syntax of of a Meta Description tag:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Citrus fruit wholesaler.">
Meta Language (non-US English ONLY):
The Meta Language tag is used to display the language used on the website. Webmasters who wish to declare the primary language of the web page can use the Meta Language tag.
Syntax of the Meta Language tag:
<META NAME="Language" CONTENT="english">
Meta Abstract Tag:
Gives a short summary of the description. The Meta Abstract is used primarily with academic papers. The content for this tag is usually 10 words or less.
Syntax of a Meta Abstract:
<META NAME="Abstract" CONTENT="Short description of page">
Meta Author Tag:
The Meta Author tag will show the author of the document and refer the name of the person who developed the HTML/XML document that is being viewed, but it is not recommended to have inclusion of the email address due to the large increase of Spam.
Syntax of a Meta Author tag:
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="George Costanza, mailto:gcostanza@vandalayindustries.com"&gt;
Meta Copyright Tag:
Meta Copyright tag is used to include a copyright, trademark, patent, or other information that pertains to intellectual property.
Syntax of a Meta Copyright tag:
<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright 2008">
Meta Designer Tag:
The Meta Designer tag is used to declare the designer of the website.
Syntax of a Meta Designer tag:
<META NAME="Designer" CONTENT="Art Vandaley">
Meta Keywords Tag:
The Meta Keywords Tag is used to list keywords that define the content of your website. Keywords are used by search engines to properly index your site in addition to words from the title, document body, and other areas. The Meta Keywords tag is typically used for synonyms and alternates of title words and 33 words.
Syntaxof the Meta Keywords tag:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="oranges, lemons, limes">
Meta MSN (No ODP) Tag:
The Meta MSN (No ODP) tag is used for your description in the MSN search results instead of the description used in DMOZ.
Syntaxof a Meta MSN (No ODP) tag:
<META Name="msnbot" CONTENT="NOODP">
Meta Title Tag:
The Meta Title tag is used to declare the title of the page. The Meta Title tag would normally have the same title as contained in the <TITLE></TITLE> tag.
Syntaxof the Meta Title tag:
<META NAME="Title" CONTENT="Page Title Here">

Not Recommended Tags

Meta Content Script Type:
Meta Content Script Type tag is used to specify the default scripting language of the document.
Syntax of a Meta Content Script Type:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Script-Type" CONTENT="text/javascript">
Meta Content Style Type:
The Meta Content Style Type is used to specify the default Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language for the documents.
Syntax of a Meta Content Style Type tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type" CONTENT="text/css">
Meta Distribution Tag:
The Meta Distribution tag is used to declare the distribution of your web content. There are three classifications of distribution which consist of:

• Global (the entire web)
• Local (reserved for the local IP block of your site)
• IU (Internal Use, not for public distribution)

Syntax of a Meta Distribution tag:
<META NAME="Distribution" CONTENT="Global">
Meta Expires Tag:
The Meta Expires tag is used to declare the date and time after which the web document should be considered expired.
Syntax of the Meta Expires tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="expires" CONTENT="Wed, 26 Feb 2004 08:21:57 GMT">
Meta Generator Tag:
The Meta Generator tag is used to declare the name and version number of the publishing tool used to create the page. The Meta Generator tag can be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
Syntax of the Meta Generator tag:
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="FrontPage 4.0">
Meta MS Smart Tags:
The Meta MS Smart tags were part of a beta test of Internet Explorer that was removed due to negative press. Meta MS Smart Tags would allow for those keywords to be highlighted on web pages that would take the user to the advertiser's site.
Syntax of a Meta MS Smart tags:
<META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" CONTENT="TRUE">
Meta Pragma No Cache Tag:
The Meta Pragma No Cache tag is used to prevent visitors from seeing a cached version of a specific page. The Meta Pragma No Cache tag forces the browser to pull information from the server each time the page is viewed.
Syntax of the Meta Pragma No Cache tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
Meta Publisher Tag:
The Meta Publisher tag is used to declare the name and version number of the publishing tool used to create the page. The Meta Publisher tag is the same as the Meta Generator tag. Could be used by tool vendors to assess market penetration.
Syntax of the Meta Publisher tag:
<META NAME="Publisher" CONTENT="FrontPage 4.0">
Meta Refresh Tag:
The Meta Refresh tag is used to specify a delay in seconds before the browser automatically reloads the document or URL specified.
Syntax of the Meta Refresh tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="3;URL=http://www.domain.com/page.html">
Meta Reply To Tag:
The Meta Reply To tag is a Spammers tag. The Meta Reply to tag picks up your email address, then hits you fast and hard with offers a plenty.
Syntax of a Meta Reply To tag:
<meta name="reply-to" content="your.email@address.com" />
Meta Resource Type Tag:
The Meta Resource Type tag is used to declare the resource of a page.
Syntax of a Meta Resource Type tag:
<META name="resource-type" content="document">
Meta Revisit After Tag:
The Meta Revisit After tag is used to inform search engines when to come back and index your site again. This information is false and has no basis.
Syntax of the Meta Revisit After tag:
<META NAME="Revisit-After" CONTENT="30 days Days">
Meta Robots Tags:
The Meta Robots tag control search engine robots on a per-page basis. Tell Robots they may traverse the page, but not index it.
Syntaxof the Meta Robots tag:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">
Meta Set Cookie Tag:
The Meta Set Cookie tag is a cookie used to set a cookie in the user's web browser. If you use an expiration date, the cookie is considered permanent and will be saved to disk (until it expires)
Syntax of the Meta Set Cookie tag:
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Set-Cookie" CONTENT="cookievalue=xxx;expires=Wednesday, 21-Oct-98 16:14:21 GMT; path=/">
Meta Subject Tag:
The Meta Subject tag is used to declare the subject of the web site.
Syntax of the Meta Subject tag:
<META NAME="Subject" CONTENT="Web Page Subject">