The title and description of the site are the first thing the user sees in the search results. How informative and attractive they will be directly depends on how you write the meta tags. This article will be useful for novice SEO specialists and site owners who do their own optimization. With it, you will learn how to correctly write meta tags for indexing: Title, Description, Keywords.
What are Title, Description, and Keyword meta tags?
Meta tags are elements of HTML code that tell search engines information about the content of a page.
The Title, Description, and Keywords meta tags are not visible on the website. They can only be found in the HTML code – in the head tag. However, when a user types a query in the Google search bar, the search result can be generated based on the meta tags.
Search engines are constantly evolving and changing their approaches. Now they rather “take note” of meta tags, and make final conclusions about the content of the page based on many other factors.
So, to form a snippet, they can sometimes use Description, or they can create it themselves from the site content. Nevertheless, SEO specialists still recommend writing Title and Description. The situation with the Keywords meta tag is a little different, and we will talk about this in the corresponding section.
Why should you write title and description meta tags?
- To clearly formulate the topic of your page, highlight competitive advantages, and set attractive clickable titles. If the search engine forms the snippet itself, the search results page may show a completely different text than you need.
- To positively influence the ranking of the site and increase the number of transitions from “organic”. Thanks to correctly written meta tags, the site will be shown for relevant queries.
Below we will discuss the requirements for each of the listed meta tags. But there are general principles:
- Firstly, meta tags must be unique within the site and not duplicated on different pages;
- Secondly, they must correspond to the content and semantics of the page; therefore, to compile meta tags, you must first compile a semantic core and be sure to take into account the structure of the site.
How to fill in the meta title tag?
The Title specifies the page title, and it affects the promotion of the site in search results by keywords. This meta tag looks like this in the head block:
<Title>Title</Title>
It is recommended to create this meta tag manually for landing pages , categories and sections. For product cards, they can be written automatically using templates. For example, this one:
[Product category][Name | Product model], price, reviews, specifications | Store
Title Requirements
- The title must be up to 70 characters or 600 pixels long to meet Google’s standards, which measures length in those units.
- It is recommended to place keywords closer to the beginning of the title – in the first 1-4 words.
- Avoid using keywords that the page does not rank for.
- It is best to include the company name at the end of the title, except for large brands such as Gucci.
- Avoid duplicating keywords, use synonyms when necessary.
- Title must be different from the first level heading (H1).
- Avoid listing all possible regions and the entire range.
- Write without caps lock.
- The text should be readable, avoid inconsistent phrases and a simple listing of keywords.
- It is preferable to use one language per page, in accordance with Google’s guidelines.
- It is not recommended to use different Title headings for mobile and desktop versions of the page.
Bad Title Example:
Computers. Prices in Nikolaev. Buy computers in Nikolaev.
Good example of Title:
Buy a computer in Nikolaev at the supplier’s price | World of Technology
What to write in the Description?
The Description meta tag is an element that contains a description of the page content. In code, it looks like this:
<meta name=”description” content=”Description” />
Requirements for Description
- The meta tag must be between 70 and 155 characters or between 400 and 930 pixels to meet Google standards.
- The description should start with a keyword and consist of logical text.
- The Description text should not be repeated in the page title (Title).
- The description should highlight a competitive advantage or unique selling proposition (USP) so that the user has a desire to go to the site.
- The meta tag should also contain a call to action and end with a period or exclamation mark.
- It should not be too short and should contain enough keywords.
- The Description text should not repeat the information presented on the website page.
- Avoid using special characters (= / \ + _) in the middle of the text, however, various graphic icons can be used at the end of the ad to attract the attention of users.
Bad example Description :
Cordless hammer drills/sale + delivery, affordable prices. This is the key to success for repairs and construction in an apartment or country house.
A good example Description :
Cordless hammer drills with discount up to 50%! Free delivery in Odessa. 3 years warranty from the manufacturer. Call now!
Keywords: how to fill and whether to fill at all
In code, this meta tag looks like this:
<meta name=”keywords” content=”Keyword” />
Keep in mind that Google has not honored this meta tag for about ten years.
Moreover, Google penalizes spam in this tag. In the screenshot below, a search engine representative says that many webmasters abused the Keywords meta tag by placing irrelevant keys in it, and therefore Google stopped taking it into account.
Recommendations for Filling Keywords
Most SEO specialists recommend not to waste time filling it in. But if you still decide to write Keywords, then stick to the following principles:
- do not write more than 20 words;
- select phrases that correspond to the content of the page and are found in its text;
- Avoid repeating one keyword in different phrases. The maximum number of repetitions is two.
Incorrect meta keyword tag
children’s shoes, sale of children’s shoes, buy children’s shoes, price of children’s shoes.
Correct Meta Keywords Tag
shoes, children’s, buy, price, sale.
Other Meta-name attributes
As you may have noticed, Description and Keywords are not separate tags, but rather values of the name attribute in the tag. As you explore your site, you may notice meta tags with different name values. Let’s look at what each of them means.
Robots
Looks like that:
<meta name=”Robots” content= />
This tag performs a role similar to the robots.txt file – it tells search robots what exactly to do with the site’s content.
Here you can specify noindex so that search engines do not index the page. Or set nofollow so as not to share link weight with the resources mentioned on the site.
Document-state
Looks like that:
<meta name=”Document-state” content= />
Its data tells the search engine whether to re-index the page. The Static value means to index once and not return, and Dynamic means to periodically re-index the page .
Revisit
Looks like that:
<meta name=”Revisit” content= />
This tag lets search engines know how often to index your site. For example, if you want Google to crawl your page once a week, specify content= ” 7 days”.
Previously, this tag was useful. But now webmasters claim that search engines themselves determine the frequency of re-indexing and rarely take into account the wishes of this tag.
Author
Looks like that:
<meta name=”Author” content= />
In this meta tag, the author of the site can leave an inconspicuous signature. For example, a link to the designer’s site, the name of a specialist or the name of an agency. If an inexperienced webmaster tries to steal the site, he can be identified by the thoughtlessly copied meta name=»Author».
Conclusion
The Title and Description meta tags are intended to provide a brief description of the page’s subject matter for search engines. Although search engines can create snippets directly from the content of a page, if the meta tags do not match the content, it is recommended to include them anyway so that the engines can take them into account. The Keywords meta tag does not affect Google rankings, but overusing keywords in it can negatively impact your page’s ranking. It is important that meta tags are unique on each page of the site and correspond to its content and theme. For best results, consider engaging top social media marketing services to enhance your overall digital marketing strategy.