The first stage of search engine optimization is “on page SEO.” On page SEO is the act of optimizing your website’s content to make your site easily found by the search engines. And a great place to begin optimizing is in the head section of your site’s HTML. 3 tags you’ll find in this section are the meta title tag, the meta description tag, and the meta keywords tag.

Meta Title Tag

When you’re visiting a web page, there’s a line of text at the top of your computer screen. This is the page’s title. When a search engine is trying to discover what your site is about, the meta title tag is one of the first things it looks at. It’s also one of the first things people using search engines will see. So choose your title with care. It should be short – fewer than 66 characters – and it must be relevant to your site. When coming up with a title, be sure to include your site’s primary keywords, while avoiding repetition. And each page on your site should have its own unique title.

Meta Description Tag

SEO is about getting your website ranked high in the search engines’ results. The meta description tag won’t help you much with this. But don’t neglect this tag – it’s still very important for SEO.

Your meta description tag should be 153 characters or less, and it should contain the keywords you wish to rank your site for. It’s best to use your top keywords in the beginning of your description. Try to avoid keyword stuffing and use each keyword only once.

It’s best to think of the meta description as your site’s sales copy. The desire to visit your site is what you’re trying to sell. This description, after your title, is the first impression of your site that people using search engines will get. So if you want their traffic, your meta description needs to be well written, relevant, and to the point.

Meta Keywords Tag

In the early days of the search engines, the meta keywords tag was an effective and easy solution to getting your site ranked high. But those days are over. The meta keywords tag isn’t going to increase your site’s ranking. Still, there’s no reason to neglect it altogether. Just use around 10 keywords that best represent your site and don’t use duplicates.

When you use on page SEO to prepare your site for the search engines, you’re going to encounter meta tags. While the meta keywords tag doesn’t make much of a difference in SEO, the meta title tag and meta description tag can do your site a world of good. With careful keyword usage and a little strong, concise writing you can give your on page SEO and your website a great push in the right direction.