Write Better Title and Description Tags for Great SEO

When creating new content for your website, whether it is a new page or blog post you want to ensure your Page Title and Description are added before publishing and making the page live.

Both the title and description are used by Google and other search engines when displaying the search results.  So you want both of them to entice everyone to click on your link in the search results rather then one of your competitors.

Think of them as a mini advertisement for your website.

Search engines will also use your Page Title when deciding what the page is about.  So ensure it is an accurate title for the page and includes your keyword/s.  Don’t include your business name – it isn’t necessary and is a waste of valuable space.

Also keep these 4 points in mind when inserting your title & description:

1. Be aware of the character limits – Keep the character limit of your Page Title to 60 characters and the Meta Description to 160 characters (including spaces).

2. Keywords – Use your keywords for that page in both the title and description but don’t go overboard.  You just want to use them sparingly so that the Search Engines know what the page is about and to also show searchers that your website contains the information they are searching for.   The title and description tags should always be specific to that particular page and contain key words or phrases also found in the page heading, and the first one or two paragraphs of that page. Google will compare the words and phrases in your title tag and description tag with the page content so be sure they are “relevant.” Don’t stuff in many keywords as it will be considered spamming

3.  Unique – Every page title and description on your website must be unique.  Don’t have duplicate tags spread over many pages of your website.

4. Write creatively and be accurate – As mentioned above think of your page title and description as a mini advertisement in the Google search results.  It needs to be an accurate description and not misleading but it also needs to entice the user to click on your website link.

Write your Page Title and Description with the user in mind first.  Even though they are important for SEO purposes, ultimately you need the user to be clicking through to your website.