Page 50 - LoudOffice_Guide-to-HTML_Part-II_Advanced.PDF

< m e t a h t t p - e q u i v = " e x p i r e s " c o n t e n t = " W e d , 2 6 F e b 1 9 9 7 0 8 : 2 1 : 5 7 G M T " >
Pragma
This is another way to control browser caching. To use this tag, the value must be "no-
cache". When this is included in a document, it prevents the browser from caching a page
locally.

< m e t a h t t p - e q u i v = " P r a g m a " c o n t e n t = " n o - c a c h e " >
These two tags can be used as together as shown to keep your content current—but
beware. Many users of Microsoft browsers through version 4.01 have reported that
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer refuses the META tag instructions, and caches the files anyway.

Refresh
This tag specifies the time in seconds before the Web browser reloads the document
automatically. Alternatively, it can specify a different URL for the browser to load. For
example if you had an entrance page that loaded the main page, the following META tag
might be used:
< m e t a h t t p - e q u i v = " r e f r e s h " c o n t e n t = " 0 ; u r l = h o m e . h t m l " >
Be sure to remember to place quotation marks around the entire c o n t e n t attribute’s value,
or the page will not reload at all.

Meta Tags with the NAME / CONTENT Attributes
and c o n t e n t
META tags are more commonly declared though the use of the n a m e
attributes. The most commonly used are k e y w o r d s and d e s c r i p t i o n , however others
are used as shown below.

Description
The META description is commonly used in search engines to show a brief description of the
site in the author’s own words. This description should be short and to the point. In fact,
WebPromote suggests that you keep your description to less than 25 words or 150
characters. Thinking that you'll really get noticed if your description is the longest one
returned, you might be tempted to put in a whole paragraph or more, but don't waste the
kilobytes. Search engines use a set amount of characters in the descriptions they return. If
yours is too long, it will be cut off abruptly. For example, the description for my N’Sync fan
page is:
< m e t a n a m e = " d e s c r i p t i o n " c o n t e n t = " D o n a l d ’ s W o r l d o f N ’ S y n c .
E v e r y t h i n g y o u ’ d w a n t t o l e a r n a b o u t t h e w o r l d ’ s b e s t b a n d . " >
Keywords
The keywords attribute is used to tell the search engines which keywords to use when
indexing the page. Keywords are separated by commas and can either be listed individually
or as expressions. You must be careful when using keywords that do not repeat any one
word more than three times, because search engines will ignore your pages, thinking you’re
trying to spam them. Although you can use a large number of keywords in your HTML
document, you should probably try to limit the total length of your keywords to 850
characters.
< m e t a n a m e = " k e y w o r d s " c o n t e n t = " l i f e , u n i v e r s e , m a n k i n d , p l a n t s ,
r e l a t i o n s h i p s , t h e m e a n i n g o f l i f e , s c i e n c e " >

LoudOffice.com Guide to HTML – Part II Page 50