Meta element 105
Meta element
Meta elements are the HTML or XHTML <meta ... > element used to provide structured metadata about a Web
page. Multiple elements are often used on the same page: the element is the same, but its attributes are different.
Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the
other head elements and attributes.
The meta element has two uses: either to emulate the use of the HTTP response header, or to embed additional
metadata within the HTML document.
With HTML up to and including HTML 4.01 and XHTML, there were four valid attributes: content,
http-equiv, name and scheme. Under HTML 5 there are now five valid attributes: charset having been
added. http-equiv is used to emulate the HTTP header. name to embed metadata. The value of the statement,
in either case, is contained in the content attribute, which is the only required attribute unless charset is
given. charset is used to indicate the character set of the document, and is available in HTML5.
Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document.An example of the use of the meta element
In one form, meta elements can specify HTTP headers which should be sent before the actual content when the
HTML page is served from Web server to client. For example:This specifies that the page should be served with an HTTP header called 'Content-Type' that has a value 'text/html'.
In the general form, a meta element specifies name and associated content attributes describing aspects of the
HTML page. For example:In this example, the meta element identifies itself as containing the 'keywords' relevant to the document, Wikipedia
and encyclopedia.
Meta tags can be used to indicate the location a business serves:In this example, geographical information is given according to ZIP codes.
Default charset for plain text is simply set with meta:Meta element used in search engine optimization
Meta elements provide information about a given Web page, most often to help search engines categorize them
correctly. They are inserted into the HTML document, but are often not directly visible to a user visiting the site.
They have been the focus of a field of marketing research known as search engine optimization (SEO), where
different methods are explored to provide a user's site with a higher ranking on search engines. In the mid to late
1990s, search engines were reliant on meta data to correctly classify a Web page and webmasters quickly learned the
commercial significance of having the right meta element, as it frequently led to a high ranking in the search engines
— and thus, high traffic to the website.
As search engine traffic achieved greater significance in online marketing plans, consultants were brought in who
were well versed in how search engines perceive a website. These consultants used a variety of techniques