Meta Information

Meta informationsometimes called meta tags for shortis a mechanism you can use to provide information about a web page.

The term derives from the Greek word "meta," which means "behind" or "hidden". "Meta" refers to the aspect of something that is not immediately visible, perhaps because it is in the background, but which is there nonetheless and has an impact.

The most common meta tags provide a description and keywords for telling a search engine what your web site and pages are all about. Each meta tag begins with a name attribute that indicates what the meta tag represents.

The meta tag

<meta name="description"/>

means that this tag will provide descriptive information.

The meta tag

<meta name="keywords"/>

means that the tag will provide keywords.

The description and keywords go within a content attribute in the meta tag. For example, here's a meta description tag (often simply called the meta description):

<meta name="description" content="Quality information, articles about a variety oftopics ranging from Photoshop, programming to business, and investing."/>

Keywords are provided in a comma-delimited list. For example:

<meta name="keywords" content="Photoshop, Wi-Fi, wireless networking, programming, C#, business, investing, writing, digital photography, eBay, pregnancy,information"/>