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What are Meta Tags? The most important part of your new web site may be something nobody will ever see. If you want your site to be found and viewed by complete strangers, they must be able to find it on Google or Yahoo etc.. The only way they are going to find it, is when they enter a "key word" or two in their browser search window. That's where "meta tags" come in, and why HTML is so important. A meta tag is part of the hidden HTML code that is put on your web site that contains the title of your site, the description of your site, and a list of keywords that are relevant to your website content. This is called "optimization". You must have access to the "Source HTML" (using the text editor) while building your page to apply the meta tags. Some websites do not even have an option to add meta tags, but some free locations do allow you access to the HTML or source. Once you apply your meta tags, and submit your site to search engines, (see site submission), the importance of these tags is paramount. Many search engines, like "Google", may not even list your site if you do not have meta tags. Once a site is submitted to a search engine like Google, the search engine will employ a "crawler" or "spider" to evaluate the all submitted sites. The crawler will check to see if the meta tags are inserted correctly, then catalog their content. By referencing your meta tags, this is how your site is found when the complete stranger is surfing. The sheer volume of sites submitted every day makes it a very time consuming process. It may take 4 weeks to 6 months to get your site listed, so make sure you get it right.
There are several sites that will create your meta tags for you for free. All you have to do is fill in a few blanks and the site will spit out your HTML meta tag code. You then copy and paste it to your web site. (I recommend making a Microsoft Notepad document and saving and labeling anything you need for your site.) Put meta tags on all of your website's pages. This will increase your chances of being found by search engines. Make your meta tag keywords and descriptions specific to the page they are on. These sites will create meta tags for you for free. http://www.globalpromoter.com/seo-tools/meta-tag-generator.cfm http://scripts.cgispy.com/metatag.cgi?user=buildfree http://free-site.org/freewebmastertools.html Double check your meta tags and html at the following links. http://www.sitesolutions.com/analysis.asp
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