NetaGuru - Online Learning Center

  HTML Tutorials
  GuruSearch!
  Web Glossary
  LiveWire Forums

  Getting Started
  Text
  Links
  Colors
  Backgrounds
  Images
  Tables
  Frames
  Image Maps

  Design Guide
  Forms
  Meta Tags
  JavaScript
  Style Sheets
  SSI
  CGI
  Web Browsers

  HTML Editors
  Free Web Hosting
  Domain Names
  Copyrights

Meta Tags are used to control various attributes attributes about your page. They are hidden from the user and are used primairily by search engines that are linking to your page. Meta Tags can be used to specify keywords, descriptions, authors, copyright information and expiration dates for pages. Meta tags are required to contain at least two attributes. The first of these is the NAME attribute. This tells the search engine what type of information your meta tag is sending them. the second is the CONTENT attribute which contains the actual information that you wish to send. Values for the NAME and CONTENT attributes are shown below:

Decsription	NAME	CONTENT
A list of keywords that relate to your site	keywords	comma-separated list of keywords
A breif summary of your site	description	A description of your site. This is case sensitive.
The name of the author of the page	author	Your name.
Copyright information	copyright	Copyright information for your page.
Creation Date	date	The date your site was created
The Language that your site is written in	language	Language code (e.g. en, fr, de, en-us)

An example of a set of meta tags would be:

<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="http://www.netaguru.com/">
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="html, html guide, html tutorial, learn html, html editor, resources, search, tutorial, web hosting, faq, Web Page Creator, What is HTML, faq, text, links, colors, backgrounds, images, tables, image maps, frames, forms, free, web browser, tips, meta tag, javascript, free home page, homepage, domain name, tools, www, guru, copyright, advanced, tutorials, featured items, online html editor, teacher, ssi, web help, html help, cgi, web service, hosting, web design, learn, CSS, style sheet, glossary">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Online HTML tutorials and FREE web based services! Web hosting, web search, and a glossary of internet terms. Learn HTML with our simple step by step guides.">
<META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document">
<META NAME="language" CONTENT="en">

In place of the NAME attribute, you can insert HTTP-EQUIV. This sends HTTP commands to the browser or search engine. It can be used to redirect the user to another HTML file or to set an expiration date for your page. In order to have your page redirect to another page, you simply create a meta tag in this style: <META http-equiv="refresh" content="number of seconds to wait" URL="path to file"> Simply place the number of seconds that the browser should wait before refreshign in the content attribute and the path to the new HTML fil in the URL attribute and you are ready to go. You can also use HTTP-EQUIV to set an expiration date for your page. This can be used by search engines to determine when to index a fresh copy of the associated document.

A sample expriation date meta tag: <META http-equiv="Expires" content="Tue, 20 Aug 2001 14:25:27 GMT"> Just replace the date with the expiration date of your content and the expiration will be set. For easy creation of meta tags for your web site, visit our Meta Tag Maker

Tell a friend about NetaGuru | Comment on NetaGuru | Bookmark NetaGuru

This page was last updated 12/12/03
Please read our disclaimer and legal notices.
All editorial content and graphics copyright 2002 NetaGuru.
Designed and maintained by David Jones and Reid Beels.

Search the Best of the Web!