Now that you’ve been applying the simple SEO techniques we’ve gone through in our previous blog posts (What is SEO?,Growing your Business with Google, How to research your Keywords, How to use keywords in your website content), hopefully, your Google Ranking for relevant search terms will have increased!
But remember that there’s no point getting to the #1 spot in Google if everyone’s clicking on the website sitting at #2 or #3.
The Title Tag and Meta Description of your website give you control over how your listing appears in the Google results.
The Title Tag (or SEO Title) of your website generally appears in the title bar of your visitor’s web browser.
It also appears as the main heading when you appear in a Google Search.
Look above, do you notice the heading “Small Business Web Design | Web123“?
The meta description is the short description that appears directly below the heading. The Meta Description on the Web123 homepage is “Take on the big guys with small business web design that looks and acts HUGE!”
If you’ve got a Web123 website you’ll be able to edit the Title Tag and Meta Description for each page on your website individually (you’ll also be able to set default Title Tag and Meta Description values to use on all pages)
How to use your Title TAG
The Title Tag helps search engines and visitors know what your website is about. You can use this space to briefly mention your products and services.
Good Title Tag Examples:
- Widgets Express – Discount Widgets & Widget Repair in Melbourne
- High Quality Rare and Imported Widgets | Widgette
- Large range of Widgets and Widget Accessories:: Widgets Plus, Wagga Wagga.
Do:
- Include your Business Name
- Briefly list 1-2 products or services you want to emphasize
- Keep things short and focused
Don’t:
- List all of your products and services
- Keyword spam
- List irrelevant but popular search terms
How to use your Meta Description
This paragraph of text is what will induce people doing web searches to click through to your website rather than your competitor!
Up until relatively recently Google used just to use the first bit of text it could find on your website if there was no Meta Description available. These days Google is much more clever at finding relevant text to use – so if you’re completely confused you might be okay to leave this out if you’re happy with the text that Google is currently using as your meta description.
Once again, try to keep things short and sweet: use 1 or 2 short sentences to briefly outline your website and convince searchers that your website is the one they’re looking for.
What about Meta Keywords?
Along with Title Tags and Meta Descriptions, you’ll often see a field for Meta Keywords. Back in the days before Google, Meta Keywords were what many search engines used to categorise their listings: these haven’t been used since the late 90s.
Adding irrelevant “Keyword Spam” in your Meta Keywords can look pretty suspicious and hurt your rankings; so our advice is to ignore Meta Keywords entirely.
Got any tips on metadata? Leave us a comment below.
Don’t want to DIY your on-page SEO? Talk to us today about our SEO Packages for Small Businesses.