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Are
you confused
about web page
design and don't
know where to
start? Feel
free to learn
HTML and how
to design your
very own web
site by using
our FREE Online
HTML Tutorial.
HTML
Tutorial Part
12:
Using Meta Tags
on your Web
Page
Improving
Search Engine Results...
When a search engine
finds your page,
it will need to
index it (that is,
add it to its searchable
database) with some
information off
the page. Many search
engines now support
the <META>
tags, which allow
you to give keywords
and a description
to your page. This
gives you more control
over how your page
will show up during
a search, and will
often cause more
traffic to your
page.
The
<META>
tag can be used
for a few different
purposes. Usually,
you should place
the <META>
tag within the <head>
tags at the beginning
of your document.
To improve search
engine results,
we will use two
specific attributes
within the meta
tag. Here is an
example:
<meta
name="description"
content="description
of page goes here">
<meta name="keywords"
content="keywords
go here">
When a user searches a search engine that supports
meta tags and they
query a phrase (search for a keyword) related to
your page, your page may show up in the list of
results. Your page will be listed by its Title,
and then underneath its title will be the first
hundred or so characters of the description you
placed in the meta tag. It is recommended that you
keep the description content to no more than 200
characters. Although the keywords content is not
seen by the user when searched, it is recommended
to keep this less than 1000 characters, because
if you have more the search engine will either ignore
the rest or delete you from the index. (Spaces are
not needed to separate keywords)
Example of a
real-life meta situation...
<html>
<head>
<title>Little
Joe's Sound Page</title>
<meta name="description"
content="Joe's
Collection of Cool
Sound files for
you to use in your
home page!">
<meta name="keywords"
content="music
sounds midi wav
joe collection">
</head>
<body>
Page Goes Here
</body>
</html>
Meta tags are not
visible in the web
page unless the
user selects to
'view source'.
Auto-refreshing...
Automatic Refreshing
is supported by
many newer versions
of Netscape Navigator
and Microsoft Internet
Explorer. This also
uses a modified
form of the <META>
tag. Auto refreshing
means that once
one page loads,
you can set a certain
number of seconds
and then the browser
will load another
page automatically.
The basic structure
is as follows:
<meta
http-equiv=REFRESH
CONTENT=x_seconds;url="http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/pagetosendto.html">
The URL
is the page you
want it to refresh
to, CONTENT
is the number of
seconds you want
it to wait before
refreshing, and
http-equiv=REFRESH
just tells it that
this is the refresh
meta tag. For example,
if you wanted the
page to refresh
to sybase.co.za
after 5 seconds
it would be as follows:
<meta
http-equiv=REFRESH
CONTENT=5;URL="http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/">
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