Meta Tag

Would anyone mind explaining or linking me to articles (preferably explaining) that explain what the meta tag is, what it does, how to write it, etc?

Thanks lots.
~TehYoyo

When in doubt, go to the W3C :slight_smile:.

And come away hopelessly confused :slight_smile:

I’d like to get the basics and then delve into the documentation later.

~TehYoyo

Basically, the meta tag gives hints about the content. Think of meta tag like a spokesman for your page.

It’s for meta data relating to the document either to emulate the use of the HTTP response header, or to embed additional metadata within the HTML document such as; keywords, author or other content.

A better source of information is, of course, Sitepoint Reference, which is far more readable and understandable than W3C.

I love Sitepoint! And…oh, they have forums? I’ll have to join those! :tongue:

I’m more interested in all possible syntaxes.

~TehYoyo

Edit - just browsed the w3 page on it. Mind telling me if I got it down? I’m looking for both correct syntax and all possible metadata tags.

HTML5 code for a site on motorbikes:


<meta name=application-name content="Pick a motorbike" /> <!--If it's not an actual "app" do I need this?-->
<meta name=author content="TehYoyo" />
<meta name="keywords" content="motorbikes, highway, awesome" />

Yah?

[FONT=Verdana]Whatever you like! As the article I linked to says, you can create whatever metas you want, although there’s not a lot of point in creating them unless they’re going to be used in some way, so unless you’re writing your own application that will make use of them, you’re best off sticking to the ones that are already established.

The basic ones are http-equiv, description [whisper]and keywords[/whisper]. Dublin Core produced a list of “standard” metas that authors could use - they take the format <meta name=“dc.title” content=“(insert title here)”>. Many of these replicate other tags such as <title> or various <link> formats, and they’ve never really taken off.[/FONT]

Let me get this straight…you can create your own meta tags?

Also, what exactly is http-equiv?

So probably I’d use:

  • Description
  • Author
  • Keywords

(insert title here)

My eyes!!! My eyes!!! I used to respect you, Steve… :stuck_out_tongue:

[FONT=Verdana]Yup. That’s why they’re “meta”, they’re tags about information. Of course, what happens once you’ve created them is anybody’s guess.

There’s a few more that are specific to Google as well.[/FONT]

Also, what exactly is http-equiv?

[FONT=Verdana]It’s a way of sending character encoding information if it isn’t set on the server. Like this:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

[/FONT]

So probably I’d use:

[list]
[]Description
[
]Author
[*]Keywords[/list]

[FONT=Verdana]Keywords is largely a waste of time. Description is absolutely vital. I don’t see any point in dc.author when I haven’t yet seen any general application of those properties.

Another method for identifying authorship is to use rel=“author” on <a> links.[/font]

My eyes!!! My eyes!!! I used to respect you, Steve… :stuck_out_tongue:

Is that better?

So it’d be most common/smart to use those?

[FONT=Verdana]It’s a way of sending character encoding information if it isn’t set on the server. Like this:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

[/FONT]
Isn’t that why a <meta charset=“utf-8”> Does?

[ot]

Is that better?
Huh? Can’t understand you, soz.[/ot]

As far as I know, that’s only allowed in HTML5, not earlier versions.

Off Topic:

[font=Wingdings]

Ha, that didn’t work!

Right. That’s what I was mostly looking for. Would that be acceptable?

Off Topic:

Ha, that didn’t work!
What! Works for me! You liar! (Or maybe you just don’t have MS Word - I figured that w/ your use of French Script, it just worked like Font Family - if you have it, it shows.

[ot]

Ah - one of the features of Opera is that it refuses to display text in a non-alphanumeric font. Sometimes a blessing, sometimes a curse. I’d forgotten that and assumed it was SPF that was trying to thwart you.[/ot]

Darn that Opera…no wonder it has 2 percent! Chrome Fanboys unite!

~TehYoyo

You do realize that’s not the reason it has 2% correct?

Well, yes. Of course. I was just kidding (:

~TehYoyo

Title, description and keyword etc are the 3 basic meta tags located in <head></head> section of a page known as meta tags. There are many available. Actually meta tag describe a page to search engine like google. When we search something with key phrase in search engines it shows title and description in search result of a website or web page.

Agh, the browser wars are restarting! Let me plump down for Opera, and be a proud member of the 2% (while staunchly standing up with the 99% here in the States, but that’s another topic entirely). But I’m happy with Chrome or FF as well, so no badmouthing of anything besides IE from me.

Agreed. I toss 'em into the sites I do, but if I spend more than five minutes on them, that’s too long. As Stevie says, descriptions are an entirely different issue. That’s what the search engines display in their summaries of your site, so write good ones.

[ot]

Oooooh. Let’s not venture into politics (of course), but I’m not a fan of that movement.

~TehYoyo[/ot]