<head></head>: the First Section of a Basic HTML Web Page
The HTML codes/tags between the <head> and </head> tag, which is collectively known as “the header,” is where a lot of the behind-the-scenes magic takes place. First, let’s look at the most important piece of HTML tag in the header. This is the <TITLE> tag set.
Header Title Tags
What’s inside the Header Title tags (e.g. <TITLE>Inside Header Title Tag</TITLE>), is what appears as the TITLE in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) and the top of the user’s browser window.
In the example below, the “Name to appear” is what’s inside the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tags that shows up at the top of your browser window, in the blue bar. If you are using the newer, tabbed internet explorer, it is also what shows up on the tab. This will also be what is shown in a person’s Favorites if they bookmark your page.
Header Meta Tags
“Meta-tags” are also set up in the header. I don’t often use part of these tags, as they are not nearly as powerful as they used to be. Let me mention them here though, so that I don’t leave anything out.
Description Meta Tag
First is the Description tag, which allows you to create a description of your page. I wouldn’t use more than 200 or 250 characters to do so. The format is:
<META name=”description” content=”XYZ“>
Where XYZ is the portion you would replace with your web page description. So for instance if you had a web page about coins, you might put:
<META name=”description” content=”A place for coin collectors to come together.”>
For the smaller search engines, this might be what shows up in a search listing. However, for Google, the description isn’t shown on a search result. However, I do believe the text inside your description tag helps weigh into Google’s keyword algorithms.
Keywords Meta Tag
The next meta tag is “keywords”, which is also mostly ignored by search engines today. However, again it may weigh into your keyword density, so you may want to use it. It also does work for some of the smaller search engines. “Keywords” is basically there to inform the search engines what keywords should be used to find your page. Again, this really doesn’t work for most engines anymore. But here it is:
<META name=”keywords” content=”X,Y,Z“>
Again, where X,Y,Z is your comma-separated keyword list. So for our previous coin collector’s example, you might use:
<META name=”keywords” content=”coins,coin collection,coin collecting”>
I don’t use these tags, but I’m sure there are plenty of page makers who still swear by them for one usage or another, so you might want to consider including them. The next tag is important in certain cases. This is the Robots tag. Robots basically tells the search engines whether or not to index a page.
Robots Meta Tag
In many cases, you will not want the search engine to index your page. Why? Perhaps it is the download page for a product you are selling. People need to go through a payment process (such as Paypal) before arriving at this page. But if someone can do a quick search in Google and turn that page up, why would they pay? They can swipe it for free! So you use the Robots tag to keep search engines from indexing those types of pages. Here’s how it works:
<META name=”robots” content=”noindex”>
This will prevent sensitive pages from being picked up by the search engines. Do not include that code in pages you want to have show up in web searches.
Other Meta Tags
There are other meta tags, but they are not supported by all browsers, or by all search engines, and are not really necessary. If you want to learn more about them, do a Google search for “HTML meta tags”. In general, your header will only include a title, so your code will most likely look something like this:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The title of my page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
In future HTML tutorials, I will show you how to incorporate JAVA Script code and CSS files in your web page using additional code in the Header.
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