Dr Clue's HTML Guide [] Meta Tags

Meta Tags

There are a number of programs that search the World Wide Web for documents and compile them into indexes. Some of these merely extract filenames or titles from headers. Others use a more sophisticated method that depends on you, the HTML author to include indexing information in the HTML file in a specific format. This indexing information is called meta information and can also be used to create your own local searchable indexes of your Web pages.

For example, if you want your files to be automatically indexed, you will need to include the following tag/name combinations in key files on your site (ones that serve as entry points into it). You can include meta tags in other files as well, but you should only do so for local indexing of your Web pages (set the distribution attribute to "local"), as providing global indexing of your pages into ALIWeb reduces the general usuability of the index by diluting it with overly detailed information, and puts a greater burden on the indexing systems. Only your main home page and possibly a few major sub-pages should be indexed with "global" distribution.

Basic META Tags for global distribution

A WebCom process runs regularly which scans the head section of your HTML files (the portion between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags) for "META" tags, and automatically generates a WebCom site.idx file which programs such as ALIWEB (Archie Like Indexing for the WEB), periodically scan for and retrieve.

Here is a breakdown of the significance of each tag. Note that when a document is indexed, the TITLE of the document becomes more significant, as it will be part of the information people use to decide whether or not to visit a site, based on the material displayed in the index.

Required Tags for document indexing

Note: The next four tags are required to be present, in order for ALIWeb to index your pages. Only the "copyright" tag is optional. Note: The parameter (for example, content) must be on the same line as the value "a sentence...").

<META name="resource-type" content="document">

<META name="resource-type" content="document">: At the moment, the only resource type that can be embedded in a document is "document", so you won't need to change this. This is the only absolutely necessary tag. If you omit the others, the index will list only the TITLE of your document.

<META name="description" content="a sentence to a paragraph describing your document">

<META name="description" content="a sentence to a paragraph describing your document">: This will be displayed along with the title of your document in the index listing. It should enable the person looking at it to easily determine the content (and thus their interest) of the series of documents it leads into. Example:
"Contains information about the Santa Cruz area modern dance scene, including local dance studios, classes offered by area professionals, major events and academic programs in area schools."

<META name="keywords" content="key words">

<META name="keywords" content="key words">: Words logically related to the content of the document series (think what you would enter into a key word search to locate this document).

<META name="distribution" content="global">

<META name="distribution" content="global">: Use global for major entry points to your site(s). Use local for local indexes.

Optional Tags for document indexing

<META name="copyright" content="a sentence or so declaring copyright Information">

<META name="copyright" content="a sentence or so declaring copyright Information">: Places a copyright message in the automatically generated index file.
"This document copyright 1994 by Bob Smith. Use for non-profit and education purposes explicitly granted."

Again, this is the only information people looking at this entry in an index will have, so make sure the description, title, and key words all contribute to an useful summation of the content of the site the document leads into. (You can also define your own meta attributes for local indexing.

<META HTTP-EQUIV=Varname CONTENT=Data>

HTTP-EQUIV binds the Varname to an HTTP header field. 
           An HTTP server may use this information to process the document.
           In particular, it may include a header field in the responses to 
           requests for this document. the header name is taken from the 
           HTTP-EQUIV Varname value, and the header value is taken 
           from the Data value of the CONTENT attribute. 
           HTTP header names are not case sensitive. 
NAME       specifies the name of the name/value pair. 
           If not present HTTP-EQUIV's value is used for the name.
HTTP-EQUIV specifies the Varname. 
CONTENT    contains the Data associated with Varname

EXAMPLES

If the document contains:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires"   CONTENT="Tue, 04 Dec 1993 21:29:02 GMT"> 
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Keywords"  CONTENT="Fred">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Reply-to"  CONTENT="fielding@ics.uci.edu (Roy Fielding)"> 
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Keywords"  CONTENT="Barney">

then the server may include the following header fields: 
as part of the HTTP response to a `GET' or `HEAD' request for that 
document.

Expires : Tue, 04 Dec 1993 21:29:02 GMT
Keywords: Fred, Barney
Reply-to: fielding@ics.uci.edu (Roy Fielding)

An HTTP server must not use the META element to form an HTTP response 
header unless the HTTP-EQUIV attribute is present. 

An HTTP server may disregard any META elements that specify information 
controlled by the HTTP server, for example
`Server', `Date', and `Last-modified'.

Auto-Load META TAG

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