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    4. Use of Meta Tag - MSSmartTagsPreventParsing

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    Use of Meta Tag - MSSmartTagsPreventParsing

    Technical SEO
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    • wcksmith
      wcksmith last edited by

      We've inherited some sites from another developer that had the following tag:

      All references I can find to it are from 2004.  What is the purpose and is it worth including in pages/sites we build?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • john4math
        john4math last edited by

        The tag is to prevent Microsoft Smart Tags from rendering.  It was only included in beta versions of IE6, and no other browsers since.  It's not worth including; you can safely delete these tags.

        An explanation of smart tags on wikipedia.

        The same question on stackoverflow.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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