Page layout with tables

Bad HTML habits

General Accessibility tips

Images & HTML

10 Website planning mistakes

The history of HTML

HTML Forms

HTML Font Tips

HTML writers guidelines

HTML code optimization

The importance of meta tags

Website planning tips

SEO & HTML

Why you should learn HTML

Dreamweaver Vs FrontPage

HTML Lists

CSS basics: ID's & Classes

DHTML explained

Website elements

Accessible web design

HTML & the Head tags

If you read any book on HTML they will tell you that the [head] tag is optional. Technically speaking, it is But leaving the header out of your HTML code is just plain looking for disaster if you want anyone to actually find your page.

Why? It all comes back to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Even though the visitors to a web site don't really look at what's in the head tag the search engines themselves use this area as a main source for indexing your site. Without this indexing process, the chances of your site climbing up the ranks of the search engines is slim to none.

So what exactly is in the header of a web page that is so important to search engines? There are actually a number of things.

One thing is the [title] tag. This is not as important as some of the other things you would find in a header but it is useful. It is basically the title of your web page and is displayed to the visitor as well as the search engine spider. This is probably the one section of the header that is more important to the visitor than to the search engine spider. A visitor likes to know where they are when they arrive at a web page. The title tag, when used properly, will give that visitor a pretty good idea. For example, let's say a visitor was at your sales page for PC hard drives. A good title for the page might be something like "MGX Limited Hard Drive Sales Page" or something like that. This way a visitor knows exactly where they are. However there are things more important than the title tags.

The most important of these are what are called [meta] tags. These are tags that provide the main source of information to the search engines.

The first of these is what is called the "description." The description is the actual description of your web page itself. This should be a very clear explanation of what a visitor will find when they arrive at your web page. Let's say, for example, you have a web page on fractal geometry. A good description meta tag might read something like this. "A comprehensive guide to fractal geometry." It is short, to the point, and tells the search engine exactly what it can expect to find there. This provides valuable information for the search engine in indexing your site.

Another important meta tag contained in the header section is the "keywords" meta tag. This is probably the most important mechanism for getting a high search engine ranking. Keywords are just that, words that are relevant to the page the visitor is at. For example, let's say you had a web page on mole and wart removal which contains articles about the moles and warts and also treatments. A list of keywords that might be relevant to this page might look something like this. "moles, warts, mole removal, wart removal, mole treatment, wart treatment, vanish warts, remove moles" and the list can go on and on. There are tools online that can help you choose relevant keywords for your page.

There are other things contained in the header that we'll cover in later articles but the items above are without a doubt the most important, at least if you want to get your page seen by real people.

About the Author

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to HTML