Meta tags are elements of the HTML code that play a big role in the way your website looks and feels. perceived by search engines and sometimes even by users. For site owners who want to improve their visibility online, while offering good user experienceIt's important to understand the meta elements. In this guide, you'll discover what are meta tags for?how use them properly for SEO, and what mistakes to avoid.
What is a meta tag?
Definition and role of HTML code
Before turning to the meta tag, let's take a look at the HTML code (its name comes from the acronym HyperText Markup Language). It is the language used to create and structure web pages. It tells the browser what to display and how to organize the content (text, images, links, videos, etc.).
Definition and role of meta tags
A meta tag is a line of HTML code inserted in the web page header. It transmits descriptive information navigators and search engines on the content of your website page, without appearing on the screen for visitors. These are called metadatathat is, data that describes other data.
The role of meta tag varies according to its type: some influence the referencing of your website, others improve the user experienceoptimize mobile display or control sharing on social networks.
The most important meta tags for SEO
Some meta tags have a direct impact on the natural referencing and how your web page appears in search engine results. Optimizing these tags will enable you to improve your visibilitybut also your click-through rate.
The meta title tag: optimizing your web page title for search engines and users
The meta title is one of the most important for SEO. It is the title displayed in search results Google. It has a major influence on your web page's positioning and the decision to click or not.
It is important for 3 main reasons:
- it helps Google's robots to understand the main topic of the page of the website ;
- she attracts the attention of Internet users in search results;
- she influence directly click-through rate.
To have a meta title tag optimized you need :
- be clear and precise by indicating the subject of the page on your website in a direct way;
- choisir des keywords pertinents preferably placed at the beginning of the title ;
- avoid exceeding 60 characters since Google cuts out titles that are too long;
- make you want to to click.
The meta description tag: write an attractive description to improve click-through rates
Visit meta description tag is a small text that summarizes the content of your page tag. It is displayed just below the title (which corresponds to the meta title tag) in Google search results. The objectives of the meta description are to make visitors want to visit your websiteIt gives them an idea of what will be covered on the web page. What's more, the meta description gives you the opportunity to sstand out from the crowd.
Here's what you need to do to get a meta description optimized :
- write a engaging description by making people want to read the rest of your content;
- integrate main keyword on which you wish to position yourself in the meta description;
- stay concise to avoid the text being cut off by Google: it's recommended for a meta description to have a text between 150 and 160 characters.
Example of meta title and meta description tags
If you type the query Serpmantics into Google, you get the following result:
The meta robots tag: controlling the indexing of your web pages by search engines
Visit robots meta tag allows you to give instructions to a search engine on how it should work. explore and index or not a page of the website. This allows you to manage the visibility of certain web pages in Google search results.
Robot guidelines: noindex, nofollow, etc.
Visit robots meta tag can give different directives to Google's robots. Among the most common are :
The fact allow search engines to follow links on a web page, this is the default value. This is the "follow.
In the opposite direction, the fact prevent search engines from following links on the web page. This is the "nofollow
Allow web page indexingThis is the default value if no directive is specified. This corresponds to the "index
If not, prevent the web page from being indexedThis means that it will not appear in Google search results. This is the "noindex
Prevent Google from displaying a cached version of the web page. This is the "noarchive
Prevent display of a content extract in search results (rich snippets). This corresponds to the "nosnippet
Strategic use of noindex and nofollow
Guidelines noindex and nofollow are not used randomly, they are particularly useful in many situations.
The directive noindex is useful for :
- avoid indexing of web pages with low SEO value including contact web pages, forms, shopping cart, etc.
- prevent duplicate content to appear in Google search results;
- prevent temporary web pages from being indexed, or under development.
The directive nofollow is useful for :
- prevent popularity transfer (link juice) to irrelevant links ;
- limit web page exploration no SEO interestwhile leaving them accessible.
Other useful meta tags
The viewport meta tag: optimizing site display on mobile devices
Visit meta viewport tag allows your website to display correctly on smartphones and tablets. It tells the browser how to adjust the website layout to the screen size. Without this tag, your website pages may be displayed in a fixed width, forcing the user to zoom or scroll horizontally, which is very detrimental to the mobile experience.
Importance of the viewport meta tag for the user experience
Today, a large proportion of web traffic comes from mobile devices. Google knows this, and favors mobile-friendly sites in its search results.
Visit meta viewport tag enables navigation on any screen, with improved legibility as text and elements automatically adapt to the screen. This helps to overall improvement of the user experienceand thus to a reduced bounce rate. Indeed, a poor mobile experience can drive visitors away.
In addition, this meta tag avoid being penalized by Google's spiders, who see its absence as a negative.
Meta tags for social networks (Open Graph, Twitter Cards, etc.)
When a web page is shared on the social networks, preview rendering depends on meta tags tags you've included. These tags control the title, image, description and other elements displayed in the shared link preview.
Each social network offers its own tool:
- Open Graph debugger used for LinkdIn ;
- Twitter Cards Validator used for twitter (X) ;
- Sharing Debugger used for Facebook ;
- Rich Pin Validator used for Pinterest;
- Open Graph which can be used by Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest
The canonical tag: avoiding duplicate content
Visit canonical tag is used to show search engines which version of a web page is the "official" or main version, lorsqu’il en existe plusieurs versions similaires ou identiques. Cela permet d’éviter aux moteurs de recherche d’indexer du duplicate content, qui nuit grandement au référencement.
When to use the canonical tag
Typical situations where the use of the canonical tag is recommended:
- when you have several similar or identical web pages (e.g. product sheets with size and color variations);
- when the same web page is accessible via several URLs ;
- when you have translated versions content.
Obsolete or avoid meta tags
Not all meta tags are useful, and some are completely useless. ignored by search engines. In 2025, it's important to know which beacons to use, but also which ones to leavenot to unnecessarily weigh down your HTML code.
The meta keywords tag: why it's inefficient and useless today
Previously, the meta keywords tag allowed Google's spiders and any other search engine to be informed of a list of keywords describing the content of the web page. However, this no longer useful for SEO. Google has officially declared that it no longer takes the keywords tag into account. for over 10 years.
This decision was taken because it was too easy for users to abusing the meta keywords tag. This made it unreliable for assessing content quality. Google's robots now rely on the actual web page content to understand what she's talking about.
Other meta tags to avoid
Visit revisit after" meta tag It's supposed to tell search engines when to come back to explore a web page (for example, every 7 days). However, Google does not take this tag into account, because it uses its own criteria to decide when to revisit a website. Its use is therefore unnecessary in SEO.
Visit refresh" meta tag automatically redirects a user to another web page after a certain delay. However, its use is not recommendedbecause it can adversely affect the user experience (with sudden or unsolicited redirects) and cause SEO problems. For redirects, it is better to use a 301 redirectmore reliable and better recognized by search engines.
Visit generator" meta tag is used only for indicate the software or CMS used to create the web page. It is useless for SEOso it's best not to use it.
Tools and resources for managing meta tags
Working with meta tags may seem a bit complicated. technique at the outset, but there are tools to help you to create, optimize and analyze them. This saves you time, avoids mistakes and improves the quality of your SEO.
Meta description generators
SEOptimer : This tool offers a simple meta description generator. You enter the name of your title, your main keyword and a description, and it gives you a preview of how it will appear in Google's search results, as well as telling you whether the length of the meta description is optimal.
SERPmantics : cet outil d’analyse sémantique dispose d’une fonctionnalité permettant de générer en un clic grâce à l’IA des titres ainsi que des meta descriptions. Tout est basé sur le mot-clé choisi, les research intentions et les meilleurs résultats de la SERP.
You can also use AI as ChatGPT to write engaging descriptions tailored to your audience.
SEO analysis tools to check your meta tags
To ensure that your meta tags are properly configuredThese tools are very useful if they are of optimal length and are not duplicated or missing:
Google Search Console : allows you to identify web pages without title or meta description, or those with overlong and/or duplicate tags.
Screaming Frog SEO : is a comprehensive website analysis tool, which lists all meta tags page by page.
Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz : These tools offer technical SEO audits that include meta tag analysis.
Yoast SEO : This is a handy WordPress plugin for managing tags directly from the WordPress editor, with real-time quality indicators.
Conclusion
Visit meta tags play an important role in the natural referencing as well as in the way your web pages are perceived by search engines and users. By being well-configuredthey can improve your visibilityyour click-through rate and the overall visitor experience.
To take full advantage of their potential, it's not enough to know them: you must also know them. optimize with the right tools. Solutions like SERPmanticsSEOptimer or Yoast SEO can be of great help. Other tools such as Google Search Console, Screaming Frog or SEMrush help you identify missing, duplicated or too-long tags, and quickly correct errors.
Don't forget that some meta tags are now obsolete and that in 2025, it's better to focus on those with a high real SEO impact.
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