If title tag and meta description sound very foreign to you and you have no clue what it is, we are here to enlighten you and get you digitally smarter.
To begin, open your web browser and just search for anything you can think of and look at the results page. You will see the search results and you will notice that there are headers and a little short sentences at the bottom of the header. The header is the title tag whilst the short sentences are the meta description.
A title tag is the title of a web page that is displayed on your search results pages and it is what you would click to get into a web page, too. A meta description is a 50 to 300 character snippet of the web page’s content. Also, a title tag and meta description will appear when an article from your webpage is shared across social channels.
You might be thinking, why do I need a title tag and meta description and is it that important?
Your website is the window of your business. Keep it fresh, keep it exciting.
– Jay Conrad Lenvinson
First of all, repeat the steps of searching for something or anything on your search engine. When the results page pulls up, observe yourself deciding on which website you pick to open out of the dozens of websites that show up on your search results. What made you decide to pick that particular website? Is it because of the title of the website? The description of the website perhaps?
See, that is how important a title tag and meta description is for your website. A meta description for your website is to draw the attention of someone searching on Google (like yourself earlier) to click your website. Although it is claimed that meta description is in not any way used as a ranking method, there is a benefit to it too. The more clicks on your website from the results, Google’s CTR (click-through-rate) will be influenced hence affecting and optimizing your position on the results.
That being said, your title tag and meta description need to be enticing and persuasive enough to make people click on your link instead of the others.
Things to keep in mind when writing a good title tag:
- The title must be closely relevant to the content of your website or specific page – If your website sells a specific niche product or service, make sure you put important and relevant keywords in your title. Do not include keywords that are not at all relevant to your product and services.
- Don’t be too lengthy – Try to keep the title under 60 characters so that it fits into the 512-pixel display. You don’t want your title to get cut off!
- Insert important keywords first – Put the product name first instead of the end of the title. Also, throw in your brand name in your title tag to help boost click-through rates.
- Keep it natural yet compelling – Think like the customer and insert content that will entice customers to click your link. Make it positive and accurate to your service and brand as it is the very first interaction between your business and your potential customers.
- Moving on to the next important part – Meta description. How do you compress a content into a short description while making it look interesting and click-worthy?
Points to remember to writing good meta descriptions:
- Watch for length – Keep the meta descriptions between 130 and 160 characters long. You can have them longer, of course, however, Google will cut it off at the end of the sentences. If you need the snippet to be longer than 160 characters, make sure you put the important keywords at the front of the description.
- Keywords – We cannot emphasize more on how important keywords are to your website. Relevancy is the key to writing your meta description. Search engines will bold your relevant keyword in your snippet of description. For example, if you own a restaurant that sells sandwiches, you want to try using keywords like “best cheap sandwiches in town”.
- Include a call-to-action – If you have a new product or a limited promotion, include words like Find out more, Learn more, Try for free, Get it now, and other phrases that will induce the attraction of your potential customers. This creates a very natural and inviting tone to your website.
- Avoid duplication – Every page on your website should be of different content, so why must your content be repetitive? Every landing page should have its own unique title and description, distinguishing them apart from getting duplicated. Make sure every page has its own unique and distinct description.
“A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click.”
We’ve covered most of the basic points you need to know about title tags and meta descriptions. Remember, you won’t always get them right the first time. Also, it does not necessarily affect your website ranking on search engine results, however, as mentioned earlier, it does help with the click-through rate (CTR). Keep in mind, a high click-through rate but a low average time on page is redundant as well. You don’t want your website to be a click bait. The goal is to entice people to click on your interesting tag title and keep their interest going with an interesting content.
In conclusion, title tags and meta descriptions are the first impressions of your website. It is vital to think through your website’s title tags and meta description now. Are they interesting enough? Are the keywords relevant? Go on and experiment with the keywords and analyze your results!
