It is important for search engines to understand what your website is all about when they index it.
Thus, they will be able to show your pages to interested browsers/visitors more effectively.
Meta Tags were previously used to influence how a website interacts with search engines and how high it ranks.
But that is no longer the case. Search engine platforms such as Google now have much more effective tools to rank your website, but that doesn’t decrease the importance of Meta Tags.
Meta Tags also come in handy while showcasing your data to your visitors on search engines. The data you enter as “metadata” gets displayed to your visitors along with a thumbnail of the website/webpage.
Why Do We Use Meta Tags?
A Meta Tag is basically a snippet of HTML code that describes the content that you’re publishing on your website or the content associated with each specific web page on your website.
This type of data/code helps search engine crawlers interact with your website to better understand the type of content that is being published/showcased on the website.
Are Meta Tags Still Relevant?
It’s been a while since search engine platforms such as Google have stopped using Meta Tags to determine a website’s ranking.
But that doesn’t mean the use of Meta Tags has lost its relevance. And nor should you stop using them on your website.
Previously, the internet went into a state of chaos as many websites started misusing Meta Tags by stuffing them with keywords to boost their ranking and ruining the SEO balance.
This is why search engines like Google have moved away from this Meta Tag practice, and now users get to insert their relevant keywords into their websites’ metadata, such as meta descriptions, to better present their content to the world.
How to Check If a Website is Using Meta Tags!
Visit the page you would like to check the meta tags of and right-click anywhere on the page and select the “View Page Source” option.
A new tab will open along with your meta tags and should look something like this.
<meta http—equiv—"Content—Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8 />
< title> Learn Why & How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress </title>
<meta http—equfiv="Content—Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8 />
<meta name="desription" content="Learn Why & How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress"/>
<meta name="keyword" content="meta tags, meta data, SEO, keyword rearch, keyword placement" />
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow" />
How to Add Meta Tags to WordPress Page or Post
To add meta tags to WordPress, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps.
There are multiple ways to add Meta Tags to your WordPress website. Today we’ll be showing you the easiest one of them all.
Step.1
Login to your WordPress account and follow this path WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New, now search for the Yoast SEO Plugin.
Now install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin.
Step.2
When you’re done, make sure to uncheck “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”
This is an important option as it actively discourages search engines from showing your website on their platforms.
To do this, head over to WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Reading Settings and just uncheck the box.
Step.3
Now, to start adding Meta Tag to WordPress, navigate to WordPress Dashboard > Pages > All or Posts > All.
For this example, we’ll be interacting with a recent post. Once you’ve selected a post and clicked on Edit, scroll down below to find a dedicated SEO section that comes with the Yoast SEO plugin.
To add your SEO data, Yoast comes with all the pre-set elements, and WordPress users will just have to add the appropriate data to each given field.
From here, users are able to add metadata such as meta description, focus keyphrase, SEO title, slug, and also a simulated preview of how the thumbnail on Google is going to look.
Step.4
When you’re done, have a revision of the data you’ve entered and click on Publish to make your changes live.
You have successfully add meta tag to WordPress.
The Best SEO Plugins
And you’re not even limited to the Yoast SEO plugin, there are many more awesome SEO-related plugins that can get the job done. Some are even comparable alternatives to Yoast.
Here are some of the best SEO plugins:
- All in One SEO
- MonsterInsights
- Rank Math
- Premium SEO Pack
- WP Meta SEO
- Rankie
- Schema
- Ahrefs
- SEMrush Writing Assistant
- SEOPress
To Wrap It Up
We believe every WordPress user should invest some time into learning how to add meta tags in WordPress.
Although Meta Tags have lost their relevance in how your website/webpage gets ranked by search engine platforms.
But it’s still very important when it comes to how your website looks and presents itself on search engines like Google.com and others.
Not only will this increase your website’s standing among the web surfers, but it will also ensure the best visual appeal to potential visitors.
In the end, we hope that you’ve found this quick how-to Meta Tags and will consider sharing it with someone in need.
And if you have any thoughts on this topic, please feel free to let us know in the comment section down below.
