Meta tags are keywords that are set within the HTML code of a website, which help explain what the site is about. They were of great importance ~10 years ago, but over time got to be abused by sketchy programmers and are no longer of any particular importance.
While some argue that you should put in meta tags even though search engines ignore them, it may be for the best to leave them out so that you don’t give competitors an easy way of seeing exactly which keywords you’re trying to rank for.
The rank is the numerical position for which a webpage show up in a search engine results page (SERP) for a specific keyword.
If Bob’s Pizza in Santa Monica were to target the keyword “pizza santa monica” in Google, and the results for that search were:
1. Jim’s Pizza2. West Coast Pizza
3. Bob’s Pizza
Their rank would be number 3 for that keyword in Google.
The SERP, or Search Engine Results Page, is the collection of links that appear after searching for a keyword. The SERP is checked to determine the rank of a website for a keyword.
Older SERPs used to be a simple list of links and descriptions based on the content of a webpage. Now, symantic intelligence in search algorithms allows for results to be customized based on the location of the search, news updates, social cues, or language cues. For instance, searching for “Plumber” will show a list of nearby plumbers (based on where the search engine thinks you are based on IP geolocation) rather than general sites on plumbing.