Search
Engine Optimization 101: Titles and Meta Tags
In the early days of search engine optimization,
marketers focused on meta-tags as the primary way to attract
search engine traffic. Meta-tags are HTML tags that help
describe the document they are located within. Today we
know that search engines not only look at meta-tags, but
a sites content, internal link structure and link popularity.
Meta-tags are still an important tool
for successful search engine marketing. Search engines
focus on three primary meta-tags to help them determine
the relevance of a website for a particular search phrase.
The Title Tag is one of the most important
meta-tags for a search engine. The Title Tag should describe
exactly what the document contains. It should contain
keywords, but not repeats, of terms you hope to be found
for. It should also be as readable as possible. You must
consider that the Title Tag will be the first thing someone
sees if you appear in a search result.
Too often, companies or individuals focus
on making sure their company name or proper name appears
in every Title Tag on their website. Imagine walking into
an immense library that contained millions of books all
with the same title. You would go crazy and never find
what you were looking for.
The Title Tag should be no longer than
70 characters and should contain words and phrases that
accurately describe the content of a page. Try to make
the Title Tags located throughout your site unique and
relevant. Every word in the Title should be contained
somewhere in the page they are used for. Research has
also shown that a call to action will usually produce
more clicks than a basic description.
Example for this page:
<TITLE>Title Tags, META Keywords,
and Descriptions - AUSWEB Guidelines</TITLE>
Remember to look at the log files of your
website, with a tool like WebTrends, and determine the
top keywords that people are finding your site with today.
You can then fine tune your Title Tags throughout your
website to reflect popular terms that you are highly relevant
for. This will only show you the keywords you are performing
well for today. There are likely many terms that won't
show up in your log files. You'll want to research those
using tools from Overture or WordTracker.
The next tag that search engines use to
determine relevance is the Description Tag. The description
for a website is a 250 character explanation of the page
and its contents. It should contain keywords and phrases
you hope to be found for, but it should also read like
an introductory lead-in for the topic or service you are
highlighting. The Description Tag is another call to action.
Example for this page:
<META name="description"
content="Visit Ausweb today to learn the basic guidelines
for writing great title tags, META keywords and descriptions
for your web pages.">
Your Description and Title Tag together
should be compelling enough to generate a click through
from a search result. You have to put yourself in the
search engine visitor's position. They are looking for
something very specific. The description you provide for
your page has to convince the person that you are providing
exactly what they are looking for. If a user comes to
your site and the Title and Description Tags don't accurately
match the content they actually find, you are less likely
to be considered a reputable source of information.
The last meta-tag that is important to
search engines is the Keyword Tags. Keyword Tags should
contain less than 250 characters including spaces and
use important keywords and phrases consistent with the
HTML Body Text and Page Title. No single word should be
used more than twice.
Keyword Tags should contain realistic
keyword terms that you hope to compete for. The more generic
the term you include in your keywords, the more likely
you are to be swimming in an ocean of 7 million other
documents. Being specific and accurate are the ingredients
to success with keywords. It's important that any keywords
you use in your meta-tags actually exist in the pages
they are used for.
Example:
<META name="keywords" content="title
tags meta keywords descriptions guidelines">
Titles and Description tags are the most
important meta-tags that search engines consider to determine
relevancy. Search engines also need to be able to successfully
crawl your website so that they can include them in their
database. That's where your link architecture becomes
very important. Read more about link architecture here.
Here's a quick checklist to consider when
writing tags:
Title:
Provides call to action - YES/NO?
Contains less than 80 characters - YES/NO?
Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
Describes what the page is about - YES/NO?
Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?
META Keywords:
Contains less than 250 characters - YES/NO?
Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
Minimal repetition of individual words - YES/NO?
Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?
META Description:
Provides call to action - YES/NO?
Contains less than 250 characters - YES/NO?
Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
Describes what the page is about - YES/NO?
Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?
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