Using META Tags

META tags

<META HTTP-EQUIV|NAME CONTENT>

The META tag is used to convey meta-information about the document, but can also be used to specify headers for the document. By using HTTP-EQUIV, a server will use the name indicated as a header, with the specified CONTENT as its value. For example:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="Tue, 04 Dec 1999 21:29:02GMT">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Reply-to" CONTENT="Johndoe@gm.com">

The server will include the following response headers when the document is requested:

Expires: Tue, 04 Dec 1998 21:29:02 GMT
Keywords: Intranets, Web Sites
Reply-to: sbumstead@iss.gm.com (S Bumstead)

META Tag Descriptions

This indicates the program used to generate this document. It is often the name of the HTML editor used.

This indicates the name of the author.

Provides keywords for search engines such as GM corporate search engines as well as Infoseek or Alta Vista. These are added to the keywords found in the document itself.

Search engines which support the above tag will now display the text you specify here, rather than the first few lines of text from the actual document when the document shows up in a search result. You have about 1,000 characters for your description, but not all these will be used.