Meta data is simply information that describes information. Although that may sound confusing to many beginners, it's really quite
simple a concept to grasp. Any given webpage is essentially a collection of information that has been compiled for the purpose of
serving it to a user. Meta data information is nothing more than a summary of that entire collection of information, targeted
specifically to search engines.
Although Meta information does not hold the weight it once did, it's still important to optimize your
meta data to target your keyword phrase. For those unfamiliar with META tags and where to place them, META tags appear in the HEAD of
your document. See the following example of META tag information that we'll use in our fictitious student loan consolidation site.
- [ META Name="keywords" Content="student consolidation loans, consolidate loans, loan options" ]
- [ META Name="Description" Content="Student Consolidation Loans. Students and recent college grads, consolidate your loans today and help alleviate your debt burden! " ]
Do you notice the recurring pattern here? That's right, your keywords are at the foremost of your META tags! Just like with your title
and content, your keyword phrase is given the most emphasis in your meta description and keywords. Some search engines will display the
content of your META description as the text that appears in the description of the SERPs, so it's important to have a meta description
that makes sense and is relevant.