Meta tags, also known as meta elements or metadata, are fragments of HTML code that provide information about the content of a website for search engines and other online services. Using them effectively is crucial in SEO for a website and improving its position in search engine results.

There are different types of meta tags to bear in mind:

1.  Title tag: This is one of the most essential meta tags. It specifies the title of the page and is the text that appears in the title bar of the browser. It needs to be appealing, contain relevant keywords and not exceed the limits recommended for the search engine.

2.  Description tag: This provides a brief description of the page content. It is the fragment of text that appears beneath the title in search results. A well-drafted and informative description can drive up click rates.

3.  Canonical ERL tag: This is used to indicate the main page when there are a number of similar ones. It helps with page hierarchy and prioritises the indicated page as canonical. We should bear in mind that in this case, the meta tag is placed on the secondary page to indicate which page is the main one.

4.  Robot tag: This indicates if a search engine can index a page or not. Sometimes it can be used to prevent certain pages from being displayed in search results.

5.  Alt image tag: This describes what an image shows. Besides being one of the elements that helps with positioning, it is important in terms of site usability for people with visual impairment who use screen readers that include these texts.

To use meta tags effectively to improve your search engine positioning, you should make sure that they are in keeping with the page content and that they include relevant keywords. It is important to maintain a coherent structure and avoid the excessive use of keywords, as search engines can penalise this. Finally, it is a good idea to review and update meta

tags regularly to adapt to changes in search trends and the algorithms of search engines.

Hotlinking describes a practice where somebody uses a link to an image, video or other multimedia file on one website and links it directly to their own platform, without hosting the image or the content themselves. This can lead to various problems for website owners, including the unauthorised use of content and unauthorised consumption of hosting and bandwidth. Fortunately, there are various ways of preventing this practice.

To start with, many websites use protection which disables direct linking through configurations on their servers. This way, when somebody tries to link an image or multimedia resource to another site, access is blocked and just an empty image or error message appears. While this is an efficient measure, some platforms or hosting may not offer this option directly.

Another common strategy to avoid hotlinking is to use a .htaccess file. This can be configured to only allow access to certain websites and block other domains that try to directly link to resources. Configuring the .htaccess file requires technical knowledge but offers accurate control over who can access website content.

Other methods include the use of content delivery networks (CDN) that can manage and distribute content and prevent hotlinking. These services provide specific links which are protected and are only accessible from the owner’s website or platform.

Despite these preventive measures, some users try to avoid them. In these cases, website owners can choose to replace images which have been directly linked with others that display a clear message on the prohibition of hotlinking and add a watermark showing the origin and ownership of the file.

We hope this article helps you to recognise the practice of hotlinking and offers you some ideas on avoiding it. While in most cases some technical knowledge is required, adding a watermark to your multimedia files can be the simplest way of protecting your online resources.

Every day we use various applications and programmes which we need passwords for. In this article we offer some recommendations for creating secure passwords which are difficult to decipher and which protect your data.

Passwords such as 124, password, abc123 or 111111 are still some of the most commonly used and also some of the least secure. We all like a password which is easy to remember, but there are some tricks to ensure this isn’t incompatible with security.

Some basic tips

• If the system creates a default password when you register as a user, change it straight away. 
• Avoid obvious keys such as your name, date of birth, phone number, pet name or anything else which might be public on your social media or which is known to others.
• Use a key for each account. If you use the same password for each of your devices, email, social media, bank account or online payments, you’re putting all your accounts in danger. If somebody manages to decipher your password in one application, they’ll have access to all your accounts.
• Use a password manager to save the keys for each of your user profiles. This is the safest way to have them to hand and ensure you don’t forget any of them.

Tricks to create and memorise your secure passwords

Creating a safe password and remembering it might seem impossible, but these tricks make it a bit easier:

• Create keyboard patterns and replace the numbers with letters. For instance, take the first six digits of your phone number and combine them with the letters of the keyboard just below them. Imagine your number is 635312, with the letters this would give you 6y3e5t3e1q2w. To add more security, you can alternate the characters in lower case and capitals and add symbols. For instance: &6y3E%5t3e!1Q2w.
• Choose a phrase, lyrics from a song, a book title or a film and transform it into a secure password. For example, with the Catalan expression “Al maig, cada dia un raig”, you might:
  • Choose the first letter from each word: amcdur.
  • Alternate lower case and capitals: AmCdUr.
  • Insert numbers and symbols between the letters: !Am6C@dUr$

And if your memory lets you down…

We insist that using a password manager allows you to keep them all safe and to hand whenever you need them. This way you only need to remember the password that gives you access to the manager.