{"id":100501,"date":"2021-11-16T08:12:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T08:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=100501"},"modified":"2025-03-26T18:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T18:19:07","slug":"meta-tags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/marketing\/seo\/meta-tags\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Meta Tags the Key to More Website Visitors?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you build it, they will come\u201d may have been true in “Field of Dreams”, but it definitely doesn\u2019t apply to your website.
\nIf you want more traffic, you need to tell Google and other search engines<\/a> exactly what your website is about and why searchers would want to land on your page. You could let the Google algorithm just try to figure it out on its own, but if you want quality traffic, you need to speak to Google in its own language: HTML.<\/p>\n

What are meta tags?<\/h2>\n

Simply put, meta tags are textual HTML tags that exist to provide information to search engines about the content of a web page. These tags are invisible to your website visitors, but show up in the code of your website. Searchers will see your title and meta description on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). are keywords and short phrases that describe your webpage\u2019s content. Meta tags can be used for search engine optimization (SEO<\/a>) by helping search engines understand and categorize your website pages. They can be essential to your digital marketing strategy<\/a>, as they help visitors find your website via search engines and encourage clicking.<\/p>\n

For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re a bestselling crime thriller author. You might use words like \u201cbest seller\u201d or \u201ccrime thrillers\u201d in your meta tags. If someone searches Google for one of these terms, the search engine automatically knows your website is relevant based on the meta tags.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

What are the different meta tag types?<\/h2>\n

There are lots of different things you want to tell search engines about your website, so there are several different types of meta tags that help SEO and all have their own purposes.
\nHere are some of the most important meta tags to tap:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Title:<\/strong> This is actually not a meta tag (it’s an HTML element), but often referred to as one, it is the title for your webpage. Like the title of a book or a movie, it should give search engines a general idea of what your page is about. Each page on your website should have a unique title that is about 50-60 characters. Many SEOs also include the site name at the end (i.e. Title | Similarweb).<\/li>\n
  2. Meta description:<\/strong> This should give more details about the content of the page. Your meta description should be unique for every page, be about 150-160 characters, and have a call-to-action to encourage click-through.\"What<\/li>\n
  3. Robots meta tags:<\/strong> robots meta tag tells search engines whether you want a page to show up in search results, or the links in it to be followed by the search engine. For example, you may want your homepage indexed to show up, but a \u201cThank you for registering\u201d page should be tagged “noindex” (meaning it won\u2019t show up in the results).<\/li>\n
  4. Viewport meta tags:<\/strong> viewport meta tag tells Google about the size of the content on the page. This is important in today\u2019s world because website visitors may be looking at your site from different devices, such as a computer or phone. Defining the viewport tells the internet browser how to display the page for an optimal user experience.<\/li>\n
  5. Hreflang tags:<\/strong> hreflang tag<\/a> identifies the language and country of your website. This is important if you have an international audience and want people in different countries to view your website in their respective languages.<\/li>\n
  6. Canonical tag<\/a>:<\/strong> This specifies the original source of the content on the website. If the content is displayed multiple times on the internet, it\u2019s important to note the original source. This fixes SEO problems that can arise if you have duplicate content on the web.<\/li>\n
  7. Open graph tags:<\/strong> Have you seen what your website looks like on social media? The displayed image, title, and description are all defined as open graph meta tags in your website\u2019s HTML code.\"Open<\/li>\n
  8. Meta keywords:<\/strong> Meta keyword tags generally should host a list of the terms you’re optimizing your page for. You can tell Google your meta keywords<\/a>, but not all search engines scan them because these words should already be in your title and description. The current recommendation is not to include the meta keywords tag in your code<\/strong>, and it’s been effectively out of use for several years.<\/li>\n
  9. Alt text tag:<\/strong> A picture may be worth a thousand words, but not when it comes to image optimization<\/a>. Incorporate keywords into this meta tag to describe images on your website so they\u2019re accessible to both search engines and visually impaired people. Pick words that paint a picture.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    How do meta tags help your SEO?<\/h2>\n

    We\u2019ve been throwing around the term SEO a lot, so before we continue, let\u2019s get back to the basics. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of ensuring your website is easily crawled and it’s value to the user is understandable to search engines. The problem is, there are billions of websites on the web and unless you\u2019re writing about something very niche, there are probably thousands of other websites competing for the same traffic.<\/p>\n

    To beat the competition, you need an overall SEO strategy<\/a> with meta tags in the middle. Meta tags are basically the CliffsNotes<\/a> of your website. Google doesn\u2019t want to read and analyze the entire text on your website, so you write the CliffsNotes to tell it exactly what’s the core value your page offers.<\/p>\n

    This is a win-win for all. The search engine provided results that are relevant to users and you brought relevant users to your site.<\/p>\n

    How to use meta tags for SEO<\/h2>\n

    You may think that defining your meta tags is a simple task because you know what your website is about. Think again. If you want your meta tags to ensure highest performance for SEO, start with keyword research<\/a>. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n

    Step 1: Figure out which keywords to use<\/h3>\n

    You probably know who your competitors are, but do you know what\u2019s in their meta tags? You could always visit their website, right-click \u201cInspect\u201d, and sift through the code and meta tags yourself. Or you could simply use the Keywords page in the Similarweb competitive analysis tool<\/a> to uncover the keywords driving the most website traffic<\/a> to your competitors \u2013 likely the ones they\u2019re using. Compare up to five websites at once and get a list of the top keywords<\/a> your competitors are using within seconds.<\/p>\n

    \"Discover<\/p>\n

    Step 2: Learn which keywords are better than what your competition uses<\/h3>\n

    Now that you know which keywords your competitor’s target, you need to figure out how to beat them. You can do this by copying their most effective keywords, but more importantly, creating your own, more specific keywords, or long-tail keywords,<\/a> to give you a serious edge over your competitors.<\/p>\n

    Back to our bestselling author. Your keyword maybe \u201cbooks\u201d, but people interested in reading your book probably aren\u2019t plugging that into their search bar. Instead, they might type \u201cbooks about mothers and daughters\u201d or \u201cbooks with surprise endings.\u201d These are much more specific and more likely to get quality traffic<\/a> to your website.<\/p>\n

    Not sure how to find the right long-tail keywords? Find the terms with the highest traffic and the lowest competition<\/a> to use in your meta tags.<\/p>\n

    There are lots of keyword ideation tools you can use, like Similarweb Keyword Generator<\/a>, to help you figure out the long-tail keywords that get you the most traffic. These tools tell you exactly what people are typing into Google, how many people are searching for these terms, and how many of your competitors are targeting these terms.<\/p>\n

    \"Dive<\/p>\n

    Step 3: Write your meta tags<\/h3>\n

    Once you\u2019ve got your best keywords figured out, start using them to build the page title, title tags, meta descriptions, HTML tags, and other tags for your website. Here are a few best practices for creating your tags.<\/p>\n