When it comes to ranking in SERPs and improving the SEO of your website pages, Meta Tags are your ultimate secret weapon.
If you’re unfamiliar with what Meta Tags are and how to use them to your absolute advantage, then read on as we are here to break it down for you and show you how to use them in the best way possible.
What are Meta Tags?
Meta Tags are simply the snippets of text that describe a page’s content. They don’t appear on the page itself, only in the search results page when a certain phrase or keyword is searched for. Meta Tags help tell search engines what a web page is about through short content descriptors.
Meta Tags are split into two categories:
- Meta Titles
- Meta Descriptions
We will explore each one in greater detail in this post and how to effectively write both Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions. But first, let us delve a bit more into why Meta Tags as a whole are important tools to use when it comes to improving SEO and increasing traffic to site pages.
Why are Meta Tags Important?
Meta Tags are important as they determine how your site page appears in the SERPs during a web search. They also determine how many people will be inclined to click onto your particular webpage. Meta Tags directly impact your traffic, engagement rates, and rankings, which all have an overall influence on the performance of your website. Overall, Meta Tags are an important part of a solid SEO strategy.
What is a Meta Title?
Meta Titles inform search engines and visitors what a given page on your website is about in the most concise and precise way possible. This is important as the Meta Title is likely to be pulled in as the anchor text when sharing your page on various websites and social media channels.
Most importantly and predominantly, Meta Titles show up as the big blue link in search engine results:
How to Write a Good Meta Title
A Meta Title is essentially the title of your page, this should be unique for every page you publish online. A good Meta Title includes your pages’ main keyword (the product/service) as well as your brand name.
Using vertical bars “|” is a great stylistic way for breaking up and splitting up the wording of your title.
The optimal length of your Meta Title should be 50-60 characters in length. Here is a tool you can use to help you write the most optimal title within the correct length for SERPs.
Examples of Good Meta Titles
‘Nike trainers’
The main keywords can be found are the start of the title and the brand name at the end, both included for maximum optimisation. Schuh have also used ‘|’ vertical bars to separate the text instead of using other punctuation and making it look cluttered.
‘Best burgers in London’
This is a great example of a Meta Title as once again all of the main three keywords are right at the start of the title tag. It then goes on to have an enticingly appealing headline (everyone loves a good list) with the use of ‘bun’s to avoid repetition and cleverly stay within the character limit.
What is a Meta Description?
The Meta Description is the short paragraph of text that appears in the HTML of a website to describe the content of that page. Meta Descriptions also appear under the pages’ URL in search result pages. This is also called a snippet.
A Meta Description will often appear when others share your articles across various websites and social media channels.
How to Write a Good Meta Description
A Meta Description is the description of the product and content on that particular page. A good Meta Description needs to include the main keyword of the page (product or service name) for it to be fully optimised. It should also contain a CTA (call to action) – eg. “free delivery on all orders.”
The optimal length of your Meta Description should be 120-160 characters in length. Here is a tool you can use to help you write the most optimal description within the correct length for SERPs.
Examples of Good Meta Descriptions
‘Captain america civil war review’
This Meta Description is short, snappy and to the point whilst still containing all of the information you need, including a markup to show the star rating. It also ends with a fantastic call to action!
‘Best burgers in London’
This is a very appealing Meta Description with the emotive language it uses to draw readers in (especially burger lovers) and get them excited about trying these best burgers in London. The keywords are also included for it to be fully optimised for SERPs.
If you would like some expert help and further advice on how to make the most of Meta’s please get in touch with us here at Bubbli!