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What is the meaning of the metatag "HTTP=EQUIV"


By using the so called HTTP-EQUIV tag you are able to add certain values to your website.
Several variaties are possible:

<meta http-equiv="expires" content="date">

Example metatag <meta http-equiv="expires"


Add the following metatag in the HTML source of your page:


<meta http-equiv="expires" content="mon, 27 sep 2010 14:30:00 GMT">

The date has to be added in the RFC850 format.

Example metatag <meta http-equiv="pragma"


Another variant is:
 
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
This tag make sure your page will not remain in the cache of the computer of your visitor. It's useful if the content of the page regularly changes, e.g. if you have a newspage on your website.

Example metatag <meta http-equiv="window-target"


Another variant is the so called window target:
 
<meta http-equiv="window-target" content="_top">
This metatag makes sure that others are not able to show your page in a frame on their own website.

Example metatag <meta http-equiv="Set-Cookie"


Another variant is the so called set cookie:
 
<meta http-equiv="Set-Cookie" content="ACCOUNT=9983373;
                   path=/; expires=Thursday, 20-May-07 00:15:00 GMT">

With this cookie-tag you are able to place cookies that are only temporary or have an expiration date.
( CONTENT="name=data; path=path; expires=Day, DD-MMM-YY HH:MM:SS ZON">)

Example metatag <meta http-equiv="pics-label"


Another variant is the so called picture label:
 
<meta http-equiv="pics-label" content="text">
This is a specific tag that provides you the possibility to add a value to the pictures on your website, e.g. "violence", "erotic" or "for all ages".
PICS = Platform for Internet Content Selection

Click here for more information about this standard

Example  metatag <meta http-equiv="refresh"


Another variant is the so called refresh value:
 
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="value">
This refresh-tag will automatically redirects you to another webpage.

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30; ,URL=http://www.metatags.org/pages/register.php">

The number "30" is the number of seconds and pages/register.php is the page your customer will be redirected to.

Where do you add this http-equiv= tag?


You may add this http-equiv= tag to all of your webpages, so not only in the first index page. Make sure that on every page relevant metatags are added.  Add keywords and phrases that are relevant and correspond to the text and the language on that specific page. It might be a lot of work to add specific metatags to each page but you will notice in time that it works!

Metatags Summary - Important SEO things to remember


We suggest that you use the Metatags in your index.htm or index.html page. Than in all other important pages and last but not least in all the pages of your website. Make sure to put some extra effort in it, it will attract extra visitors to your webpage. Create relevant different metatags for each and every page.
  1. Read why metatags are important and how they affect the search engines.
  2. Use our metatags generator to create the correct metatags.
  3. Use our website analyzer to get professional advice from the metatags experts.
  4. Submit your website to the search engines and choose one of our packages:
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Part of the MetaTags Company BV- Last update: 21-11-2008