Many are interested in how to write tags correctly. Graffiti, images, audio, video - all this is tagged for simplified search on topics.
Do we correctly understand the meaning of this word and is the tag really needed only as a pointer when searching for information?
What are tags
The word "tag" refers to the category of homonyms - words that are written and pronounced the same, but have several different meanings.
The language of its origin is English, from which tag translates as "tag, label", and the verb to tag is known to the British in the meaning of "tag, tag."
Based on this, tags make it possible to put a mark, to indicate something. In particular, tags are very popular in the field of information technology, web design, digital business.
Today we will talk about how to write tags for the Internet, namely for social networks and when creating sites.
Using tags on social networks
Almost every representative of modern youth knows the word "hashtag" - a mark that indicates the theme of the posted photo, video or text post on a social network. Distinctive features of the hashtag:
- It starts with the pound symbol (Shift + 3 in the English keyboard layout).
- If it consists of two or more words, then these words should not be interrupted. Usually, they do not put spaces between them (for example: # go out), or put punctuation marks or the "underscore" symbol in those places where there should be spaces (for example: # we_walk_walk).
- If you click on an active hashtag, the search will return other entries with the same hashtag. That is why hashtags are often used to simplify the search for a public or topic of a post.
Using tags when posting videos to Youtube
For YouTube video hosting, the presence of tags is incredibly important. The fact is that this service helps video bloggers promote their channels for free if the following conditions are met:
- The user does not violate the rules of "YouTube" and the norms of applicable law.
- The videos on the user's channel are really interesting and the audience likes, as evidenced by the number of views, comments, positive ratings, the number of subscribers.
- The channel is designed correctly: there is a cover, all the necessary information is filled. This makes it clear that the blogger is serious.
- The video is placed correctly: the name of the source file corresponds to the future name of the video, the name itself is intriguing, and tags are also indicated.
Tags are filled after the video has been uploaded in a special field. They allow the user "YouTube" to find a video on the topic. The system analyzes the tags and the name of the video, then issues it on request in the search bar.
How to write tags in Yandex Zen
Yandex.Zen is a platform that allows young authors to create their own blog and find readers without financial investments and advertising. However, in order for the reader to find an article interesting to him, it is necessary for Yandex to show it to a person. The search engine determines the topic of articles by name and tags, almost like in the case of videos on YouTube.
How to write tags in Zen
Decide on the topic of the article. Highlight keywords - they should become tags.
Do not try to push as many popular words into the tag field as possible if they are not relevant to your article. The search system still has a well-tuned algorithm for determining what the article is about.
There are very few materials on how to write tags with names, for example, names of companies, organizations, blogs. The basic rule is to use them not very often, as this may push away. It is not difficult to understand in practice how to write tags with names correctly.
Using tags in HTML
Things are much more complicated with the use of tags in web design when creating sites. The site structure is written using HTML - in translation into Russian, this abbreviation means "hypertext markup language."
It’s not so difficult to understand how to write tags in HTML, to learn them is a more difficult task. Each tag is responsible for something in the structure of the site.
How to write tags in HTML
Each tag is enclosed in angle brackets, otherwise it is not considered a tag in HTML, and therefore it will look like just text. How to: <title>, <b>. How wrong: title, b.
Each tag has an action. In HTML, absolutely everything is written with the help of tags, whether it is a font of text or an insertion of an image.
There are paired tags, but there are unpaired tags. Paired ones indicate that the action of a certain tag applies only to the part of the document - the one that is placed between the paired tags. A tag that points to the end of the fragment is written with a slash. For example, if you want to highlight text in bold: <b> text in bold </b>. If you need to insert a table: <table> here is a table with columns, cells and text in them </table>.
Unpaired tags are mainly associated with the insertion of any element, so there is no need to indicate which part of the document applies. Such tags include a paragraph, insertion of an image / video / audio recording, insertion of bullet points, and the like. For example, to insert an image, use the following tag: <img> to insert a paragraph - <br>.
In addition to tags, there are their attributes - a kind of tag settings. For example, to indicate the font size, color, or type, the <font> tag is used, but this is not enough, because the machine does not understand exactly what font size or type is meant. Therefore, you need to specify using the size, color, and face attributes. They are written in the same angle brackets after the tag, and it is important to set the value of the attributes. For example, <font size = "+ 2" color = "770077" face = "Tahoma">. This means that the font size will be increased by two points, the text color will be purple, and the font used will be Tahoma. You can also select only one attribute. By the way, the color code is written on the basis of RGB. You can simply see the code of the selected color in Photoshop.
An error in the code is called a syntax error. Missing character, missing or extra letter, typo - all this can affect the operation of a web page, and finding this error can be very difficult, especially if the code is written in a simple text editor like Notepad. Special programs for web developers help out, which highlight places where there are errors.
Why meta tags are needed
Most often, a person comes to a website through search engines. For example, he searched for “how to insert a hyperlink in HTML” and got to the page of the site where he talks about it. I did not like the information, or it was incomprehensible, or not enough - I closed the page and went to the next.
As a rule, the user will follow the links that occupy the first positions in the search results.
For this reason, it is beneficial for site owners to have their site in the top. A lot of factors influence the position of a site in search results, among which are correctly spelled meta tags.
The purpose of meta tags is to clarify what information a web page or website contains.
Tasks of meta tags during optimization
To optimize the page for search engines, you need the <title> <description> <alt> tags:
- <title> Text </title> is a paired tag. It spells out what information is contained on this web page. The <title> may repeat what is written in the H1 heading and subheadings, or it may be slightly different. The data in the <title> tag is not visible on the page itself, only in the code and in the site tab.
- <description> is a more detailed description of what information is contained. Approximately 150-200 characters are enough (several sentences). The user does not see what is contained in this tag, this information is needed for indexing by search engines.
- <alt> - his task is similar to the task of the previous tag, but the difference is that he specifies a specific element, for example, explains what the image is about. The user can see this description only when the mouse cursor is over the image, and that is not always the case.
How to write meta tags correctly
Highlight a list of keywords for your site or your web page. This can be done using automated programs or by contacting an SEO specialist. The latter will be more effective, because a specialist analyzes your site, competitors' sites, looks at the relevance of search queries, and the program simply displays the most frequently requested words or phrases by users on a specific topic. It is possible that the specialist uses such programs, but then he includes his own head and his experience in order to evaluate the result.
At the output, you should get a semantic core - a selection of keywords and phrases. Select one to three primary keys in this collection.
All meta tags need to use at least one or two main keywords. For example, if the site is about dog training, then the phrase "dog training" should be at least in the <title> and <description>.
Try not to push all the keywords into one sentence. Search engines filter sites for the so-called "spam" - excessive use of keywords and phrases.
If the text on the web page is in Russian or the site as a whole is Russian-speaking, the description in the meta tags must also be in Russian so that search engines correctly index the page. The same rule applies for any other language. Please note: if a user searches for information in English, and his search query includes only English words and phrases, then the system does not return sites in Russian or Chinese.