Meta tag

Meta tagsusedprovide structured data about data, similarmany ways toinformation providedtraditional library catalogue records.

Accessinformation storedwebpages can be enhanced byprovisionan informative title, description (summary oftext)subject keywords. Keywordsoften taken fromcontrolled vocabulary such asthesaurus, which ensures that wordsadded consistently. In addition,thesaurus lists synonyms so thatnumberalternative search termsprovided. For example, ifkeyword 'fishing'assigned topagenear-synonym 'angling' should also be added.

Words whichoften misspelledoften added as keywords. For example, accommodationmillenniummisspelled almost as often as theyspelt correctly. Adding these misspellings as keywordsthereforepotential value.

Commercial Uses

Meta tags have beenfocus offieldmarketing research known as search engine optimization, or SEO. Inmidlate 1990s, search engines were reliant on meta tag datacorrectly classifywebpage. Webmasters quickly learnedcommercial significancehavingright meta tag, asfrequently ledhigh rankings at search engines -thus, high traffic tosite.

As search engine traffic achieved greater significanceonline marketing plans, consultants were broughtwho were well versedhow search engines perceivewebsite. These consultants usedvarietytechniques (legitimate,otherwise)improve rankingstheir clients.

Inearly 2000s, search engines veered away from reliance on meta tags, as many sites used inappropriate keywordsobtain anyall traffic possible.

Some search engines, however, still take meta tags into some consideration when delivering results. In recent years, search engines have become smarter, penalizing websites thatcheating (by repeatingsame keyword several timesgetboost insearch ranking). Insteadgoing up rankings, these websites will go downrankings or, on some search engines, be kicked off ofsearch engine completely.

AlternativeMeta tags

An alternativemeta tagsenhanced subject access withinwebsite isuse ofback-of-book-style index forwebsite. See examples atwebsites ofAustralian SocietyIndexers (www.aussi.org) andAmerican SocietyIndexers (www.asindexing.org).