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Making use of
"META" Tags Don’t let the term scare you away. META tags are primarily used for document identification. They sometimes offer specialized page functionality but their use in this instance is fairly rare. The most common term is the "keyword" event handler. A series of keywords (separated by a comma) entered in the appropriate area can greatly improve your site’s popularity among search engines. The "description" event handler is called up on a search engine’s results page. META tags are also used to identify the page’s authoring program, the author, creation date, etc. You can always get creative and add META tag names of your preference whenever you feel necessary. If for some reason you want to redirect a user to another page automatically, use the command line <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="x; URL=pageurl">, where "x" is the time delay before automatically redirecting the user to another Web page and "pageurl" is your Web page’s URL. Try using this feature infrequently because the user preferably wants to control their own navigation. An example of using this META command would be for redirecting deleted pages and auto-linking the user to another page that says something along the lines of: "Sorry, this Web page no longer exists. Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new URL. You will automatically be transferred to the new Web page in 5 seconds or you can click here to go there manually." (Cute, huh?) Just remember to insert a hyperlink to your new page for the "click here" text. You might also find use with this command line for creating a splash screen before entering your Web site. META tags are always placed within the <HEAD> tags. Refer to the example model given below of a typical META tag assembly. <META NAME="description" CONTENT="The Internet’s premier auction site where you can buy and sell stuff online!"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="auctions, online auctions, internet auctions, cool stuff, reduced prices"> To submit your Web site’s URL to popular search engines, please refer to the "Popular Search Engines" section at the back of this book. You’ll find a helpful listing of these search engines followed by their appropriate Net address that enables you to submit your site’s URL. Side Note: To update the search engine’s "keyword" and "description" event handlers, you will need to resubmit your URL to make the new information active. Also, try refraining from entering keywords that have nothing to do with the content on your Web page. Entering such information transforms your Web page into what’s termed as a "scam page" because it attracts users that visit your page expecting to see information they inputted on a search engine. Instead of coming to a viable resource, they were mislead by keywords that had nothing to do with your Web page’s content. Some search engines actually filter out scam pages from their database. So, please think twice before using misleading keywords. |
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