Meta Tags | What They Are & How to Use Them for SEO
Meta Tags | What They Are & How to Use Them for SEO Published August 21, 2025 Get A Free Quote Did you know that more than 90% of users make a decision to click on a website just by reading the title and description in search results? That’s right; the initial impression of your site can be based on multiple lines of text that are called meta tags. The trap is that most companies neglect or abuse these tags. Without effective meta tagging, search engines can’t make sense of your content, and users bypass your site to a rival’s. It’s like having an amazing store hidden in a busy street with no sign board—people just keep passing by. At Phoenix Dial, we solve this problem every day. Our team of SEO experts knows how to create the right meta tags for SEO that not only explain your content clearly but also attract clicks. We’ve helped service-based companies, bloggers, and eCommerce brands get noticed simply by fixing their tags for search engine optimization. In this post, we’ll explain in simple words what are meta tags, why they are so important, and how to use meta tags the right way to improve your website’s visibility and click-through rate. By the end, you’ll know exactly how these small lines of code can bring big results for your business. Start Growing Your Business Today Get a free, personalized quote via WhatsApp for your business. No pressure—just smart solutions tailored to your goals. WhatsApp What Are Meta Tags? Meta tags are short pieces of text placed in the HTML code of a webpage. They provide users and search engines with a general sense of what the page is about. You won’t even know that they exist when you arrive at a site because they don’t actually appear on the page, but they do show up in locations such as Google search results. Think of them basically as name tags or labels describing your content to people and to search engines. These tags work quietly in the background of a website. When someone searches for a query on Google, the search engine navigates your meta tagging to understand the topic of your page. If your SEO meta tags are properly written, they can boost your search visibility by notifying search engines, “Here’s exactly what this page talks about.” This makes it easier for your site to appear for the right keywords. Example: <title>Easy Pasta Recipes | Phoenix Dial</title> <meta name=”description” content=”Discover quick and easy pasta recipes. Simple steps, tasty results, and beginner-friendly tips.”> </head> The <title> tag tells both search engines and users the main topic of your page. The <meta name=”description”> tag gives a short summary of what readers can expect. Together, these meta tags and SEO elements act like a shop window display. They don’t show the whole store (your content), but they give just enough information to attract people to step inside. Why Are Meta Tags Important? Meta tags play an important role in how search engines read and show your site. When search engines like Google crawl your site, they read your meta tagging so they can understand what your content is discussing. If not for these signals, search engines may not be able to rank your page or even show misleading information on search results. They also decide how people engage with your site. For instance, having a good title tag and a good description can have your result displayed in Google. This increases your click-through rate (CTR) since people are likely to select your site compared to other sites. A plain or missing meta description, on the other hand, can make users scroll past. From an SEO point of view, meta tags for SEO act like a bridge. They connect what you write on your page with what search engines and readers are looking for. Optimised tags for search engine optimization help your page rank better, while also convincing people to click and read more. Which Meta Tags Does Google Support? Not every meta tag has an impact today, but a few are very important for Google. These specific meta tags for SEO help search engines understand your site better and also improve how people see it in search results. Let’s look at the key ones Google supports: Title Tag The title tag is the most powerful of all tags for search engine optimization. It appears as the title in Google search and is typically the first thing you see. A great title provides Google and readers with a good idea of what your page is about. By putting the right keywords in a natural setting, it can make you more prominent and get more clicks. Consider it the title of a book—if it’s dull or confusing, nobody will read it. Meta Description Tag The meta description may not directly change your rankings, but it strongly influences clicks. This short summary often shows under your title in search results. A poor description makes your page less appealing, but a good description boosts your click-through rate (CTR). Google will occasionally change descriptions if it thinks another element of your page is better, but having a good one in there is always best. It’s your chance to “sell” your page in one or two sentences. Robots Meta Tag (index/noindex, follow/nofollow) The robots meta tag instructs Google what action to take with a page. You can tell Google if a page is allowable to display in search results and allow it to follow the links using it. For example: index, follow indicates a page is allowable to display and its links may be followed. noindex, nofollow indicates the page will not be displayed and its links won’t be followed. This is extremely helpful in case you have some pages that you do not want to be crawled by Google, like testing pages, duplicate pages, or thank you pages upon form submission. That is, it offers you a finer control on what…