We’ve previously covered HTML meta tags and meta tags[1] and in some depth[2], but as with most things in SEO, it’s an ever-changing landscape and the accepted usage and definitions of tags is often changing.
It’s worth mentioning that if you’re in this realm of SEO optimization, you should also be getting the low-down and implementing structured data[3] to ensure crawlers get the best experience possible.
HTML meta tags vs meta tags: what’s the deal?
Firstly, it’s time to clear up some of the confusion around HTML meta tags and meta tags. The difference between the two tag types is largely arbitrary, with the syntax for an HTML meta tag meaning it’ll contain the word meta within it, whereas a tag defined as a meta tag doesn’t necessarily have to.
The decision for which do or don’t are defined by W3C and are open to change over time, however, what’s important for us to remember is that they both serve the same purpose, that is which is that they are used to provide search engines with information about a web page
Sidenote: Some people include header tags as meta tags, but as they describe one element of a page, not the contents of a page as a whole, we’ve decided to leave them out. However, it goes without saying that ensuring you’re optimizing your header tags will help search engines, and more importantly users, understand what your content is about.
With that cleared up, we can get down to business and take a look at a selection of both HTML and meta tags that we think are useful when performing SEO.
Hreflang
So to start off on