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| Metadata - Meta tags |
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Metadata is data that describes other data. This data is provided within the HTML document, but is typically not displayed in the browser. In HTML, examples of metadata are the DTD tag used at the beginning of an HTML document and the <META> tag. The <!DOCTYPE> or DTD (Document Type Declaration) tag is used to specify the document's HTML version and its primary language. It is actually an SGML tag, but it is essential to include this tag with HTML documents to provide HTML interpreters with HTML version information. The DTD tag is an empty tag that is placed before the <HTML> tag at the beginning of the document. An example
of a DTD tag is: While
one function of the <META> tag is to list keywords for search engines,
it has many other functions including listing the author's name of a Web
site. Information that can be provided by the <META> tag is as follows: Two
attributes of a meta tag: Search engine preparation. Marketing your site is a very important in its overall management. The notes that follow will help you in the technical issues of preparing your site for registering with search engines. Prepare your site carefully before you submit it to a search engine. Once you submit it, it may be weeks or months before the search engine revisits your site to record the changes. Keep in mind that each search engine determines relevance differently, so not all of these guidelines apply to all search engines. Many search
engine return lists are based on relevance rankings. The search engine
will use certain methods to determine if the Web page is relevant to the
search criteria. The more relevant the return, the higher its ranking
in the return list. While search engine methods vary, most follow these
common practices: Use a short phrase between the <TITLE> tags to describe your page. The <TITLE> tag to specifies text that will appear in a window's title bar as well as in a bookmarked entry, and is also used by seach engines to determine the title of a page. Use <META> tags, illustrated below, to describe your page Since not all search engines use <META> tags, have a few words or sentences that describe the site at the top of the page. Frames are a controversial issue with many web builders, an important reason for NOT using them is that they prevent some search engines from indexing your site. Image maps are not supported by all search engines, however if you use an image map, you could also include the actual links somewhere else on the page that could be followed by the search engine. Don't forget to use the ALT attribute in image tags to define your web images. Web designers should avoid words like "and", "the", and "to" when listing their keywords in the <META> tag. Strategic use of keywords is crucial to being considered relevant to the search criteria. The higher the relevance, the higher the search ranking. Keyword guidelines for increasing relevance and search engine ranking are: * include
the keyword as singular and plural META NAME Examples CONTENT ATTRIBUTE Examples (Comments) <meta
name="Author" content="Tom Peracchio aka Questy, questy.com
"> <meta
name="Classification" content="technology and the Internet,
self help and learning"> <meta
name="Description" content="Questy's Learning Area, links
for learning about the internet, networking, and web building."> <meta
name="KeyWords" content="learn, learning, study, studying,
help, how, technology, internet,internet, network, networking, HTML, WWW,
web, webmaster, computer, tips, links, lessons, help, articles, analogies,
computer tips, webmaster links, self study, learning area, shopping"> You may find detailed tips at each search engines site for how they index pages. These tips cover general advice. Just because you like one particular site, potential visitors to your site may be directed by many different search engines. If you try too hard to rate high in one search engine, you may miss out on another. Other Metadata useage: Using the HTTP-EQUIV attribute in the <META> tag will force the Web server to add or change the information it places in the response header. When a user requests a Web page, that request is sent to a Web server via the HTTP protocol. That Web server will respond to the request and its response will have information at the top called the response header. Information placed in that response header controls the actions of the user's Web browser. For example, if a Web designer wanted their HTML page to place a small text file about user preferences, called a cookie, on the user's computer, they would do so by setting the value of the HTTP-EQUIV attribute to "set-cookie". That code would appear as follows: <META HTTP-EQUIV="set-cookie" CONTENT="cookievalue=user@website.text"> This code would cause the Web server to add information in the response header about placing a cookie on the user's computer. Setting the HTTP-EQUIV attribute value to "refresh" will cause the Web browser to automatically reload the page after the specified amount of time. Not all browsers will respond to this request, but Netscape Navigator supports the "refresh" attribute. The code for forcing a page to reload every five minutes is: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="300">. An optional URL can also be used to direct the user to go to another URL after a specified amount of time. For example, a Web site might display a splash screen upon entering the Web site for 10 seconds and then direct the user to another Web page after the 10 seconds. The tag for this example would appear as follows: <META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="10;URL=http://www.newpage.com/page.html"> |
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