What are the most important HTML tags for SEO?

For good SEO, the following HTML tags are still important: in the of your web page the title tag, the meta description tag, the Open Graph tags, the robots tag, the canonical tag and in the of your web page the header tags and the alt tags. Make sure you use them well and fill them in the right way.

HTML tags


Search engines search for HTML tags on your web page to understand and trace what your page is about. So it is still important that you use these HTML tags well and fill them in the right way so that your website is indexed optimally. HTML tags appear in the and section of every web page. Of all tags, the following are important for SEO:

In the head section:

  • Title tag
  • Meta description tag
  • Open Graphs tag
  • Robots tag
  • Canonical tag

In the body section:

  • Header tags
  • Alt tags

Head section

Title tag

The title tag contains the page title of your web page. The page title is shown in the tab of your web browser and is used by search engines for the title of the search result (snippet/SERP). The HTML code for the title tag is:

<title>…</title>

In the page title it is very important that you describe the subject of the page well with one or more keywords. When optimizing your page title, try to also take into account voice-driven searches.

Meta description tag

The meta description tag is used by search engines to describe the search result (snippet/SERP). The HTML code is:

<meta name=”description” content=”…”>

It is important that the description fits well with the subject in the page title and clarifies it further. If you fill in both tags correctly, search engines will understand what your page is about.

Open Graph tags

Open Graph tags are used to influence how a web page shows itself when it is shared through social media channels. The HTML code for the Open Graph page title looks like this:

<meta name=”og:title” property=”og:title” content=”…”>

Often the page title and meta description tag are copied basically, but if you want to set them differently for sharing your page in social media channels, you can do so with the Open Graph tags. Of course, keep making sure that the content of the Open Graph tags remains the same as the content of your page, but focused on your followers.

Robots tag

With the robots tag you can tell search engines which pages they should index and which they should not. It is possible that there are certain pages on your website that are not of added value to search engines. You can exclude those pages from indexing by using the robots tag. The HTML code looks like this:

<meta name=”robots” content=”index, follow”>

The operation is the same as with a robots.txt file, but with the tag you can more easily exclude an individual page from indexing.

Canonical tag

When you have pages with duplicate content on your website, you can use a canonical tag to indicate which page is the main page and which is the copy. The HTML code is:

<link href=”/URL” rel=”canonical”>

The canonical tag is placed on the copy page (or page with duplicate content), keeping the original page the highest priority for search engines.

Body section

Header tags

Header tags are used for header lines and indicate the subject of the page, or the subject of paragraphs and other text blocks. There are 6 header tags, not all of which need to be defined in the CSS of your website. The HTML code of the H1 header is:

<h1>…</h1>

The H1 header of your web page is the main header and describes the subject of your page. In contrast to the page title, the H1 header is visible on the page. The H1 must be a confirmation of whatever is in the page title. It is better that it is not a 1-on-1 copy of the page title, but it must contain the same keywords.

The H2 to H6 headers are sub-headers and can be used for structuring paragraphs and other text blocks. The value of these headers is the same, the layout often slightly different. So you can use them as you see fit to make your page look best for your visitors.

Alt tags

Because search engines are still unable to interpret images unambiguously (images are often used symbolically and not literally), there are alt tags to describe images. The description then contains the explanation why this image has been placed with the text on the web page. The HTML code is:

<img src=”/url” alt=”…”>

It is good to use the keywords of the page in the alt tag as well. If you do this correctly, you will often see the images of that page next to your web page in search results.

Important for on-page SEO
If you use all the HTML tags correctly and fill them in the right way, it helps with your on-page SEO and search engines will index your web pages better and make them stand out better in search results.

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