How to Add Metadata in Dreamweaver

Metadata allows search engine to grab information from your webpage, which is invisible to human viewers. This data is typically used for search engine optimization (SEO) to improve search placement or format your site information in the search results. Metadata may also invoke certain search engine or browser behaviors, such as telling a search engine not to index a page or automatically refreshing or redirecting the page after a certain period of time. Dreamweaver simplifies the addition of these head tags with a menu-based setup.

Instructions

1. Open your HTML page in Adobe Dreamweaver.

2. Click "Insert" in the top menu. Choose "HTML" then "Head Tags" and choose the meta tag you wish to add. Your options are "Meta," "Keywords," "Description," "Refresh," "Base" and "Link." The first four are most frequently used. The "Meta" option is a special case, which allows you to define different tags. "Keywords" and "Description" allows you to describe your page to search engines with a series of keywords or descriptive sentences. "Refresh" allows you to automatically refresh or redirect the page.

3. Enter the pertinent text in the pop-up window. Keywords and Description offer a single text window where you can enter your information. "Refresh" allows you to enter a time period before the page refreshes itself or redirects the user, along with a redirect URL. "Meta" allows you to specify a meta name and content. As an example, you might enter "robots" in the Value field and then "noindex" in the Content field to prevent search engines from indexing your page.

4. Click "OK" to enter the metadata.

5. Save your changes and upload the page to make it live.

References

• SEO Consultants: Meta Tag Tips - Metadata Elements
• University of Michigan: Adding Meta Data with Adobe Dreamweaver