What Are Meta Tags and Why Are They Important?

Overview

Meta tags (the trendy nickname for "metadata" tags) are special HTML code snippets that are only visible to search engines. Meta tags have a couple of handy uses:

• They can contain information that search engines will display, such as the page description users will see in search results.
• They can also direct the behavior of search engines, like specifying or limiting what they can index, or preventing them from indexing the page at all.

Proper use of meta tags can be particularly helpful for SEO.

What does SEO-Rx check?

SEO-Rx checks three primary Meta tags:

Description meta tag

This tag is used by search engines to create the page description you see in search results. SEO-Rx verifies that your description is within parameters for optimal display.

Viewport meta tag

This tag lets web browsers know that your site is responsive. (Your site is responsive, right?)

Robots meta tag

Robot meta tags control how a search engine can index your page.

In this Help section, we’ll explain each of these checks and what SEO-Rx recommends.