SEO meta tags are HTML meta tags that are inserted into the header area of a web page to provide search engines with information about the content and structure of the page. These meta tags are important elements of on-page optimization as part of search engine optimization (SEO). They are used to help search engines better index the page, display it in search results, and understand which keywords and topics are related to the page.
The most important SEO meta tags are:
1. Title Tag: The title tag defines the title of the web page, which is displayed in search results as a heading for the search result link. The title should be concise, descriptive and contain relevant keywords.
<title>Your page title here</title>
2. Meta Description Tag: The meta description tag allows you to define a short description of the page. This description is often shown below the title in search results and is intended to give users an overview of the content of the page.
<meta name="description" content="Kurze Beschreibung Ihrer Seite hier">
3. Meta Keywords Tag: In the past, meta keywords tags were used to provide a list of relevant keywords for the page. However, most search engines stopped using meta keyword tags because they were vulnerable to misuse.
4. Meta Robots Tag (Meta Robots Tag): The meta robots tag can be used to control whether search engines are allowed to index the page or not. This can be used to block pages or exclude specific areas of the page.
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
5. Canonical Tag (Canonical Tag): The canonical tag is used to tell search engines which version of a page should be considered the main version when there are multiple versions of the same page.
<link rel="canonical" href="URL-der-hauptversion-der-Seite">
6. Hreflang tag (Hreflang Tag): The hreflang tag is used for multilingual websites to tell search engines in which language and region the content is available.
<link rel="alternate" href="URL-der-anderen-Sprachversion" hreflang="Sprachcode">
These meta tags should be carefully created and optimized to make the page more relevant to specific keywords and topics. They help search engines correctly interpret the page and display it in search results. It's important to note that not all search engines use all meta tags or rate them the same way. So it makes sense to stick to SEO meta tag best practices, but also to keep common sense and user experience in mind.