October 21, 2019

The Ultimate Guide to Meta Descriptions

Posted on October 21, 2019January 22, 2025 by avintivmstg

A meta description is a snippet of up to 155 characters that summarize a page’s content for that exact page. Search engines show the description in the search results when a user is searching for a specific word or phrase. For that reason, optimizing your meta description is crucial for your on-page SEO success.

Search engines determine the page’s topic and the audience that will find value through your meta description. More importantly, the descriptions explain what users will find on the page.

When writing meta descriptions, keep in mind quality is still king (or queen). A very well written meta description can generate higher rankings in the search results, which will create a higher click-through rate for the user.

We recommend keeping your description between 165 and 175 characters long.

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Add in your brand’s name, a keyword or two and what users will find on the page. This could be the first interaction visitors will have with your brand. Make it a great experience.

How to create the right meta description

1. Include a call to action

Just like any type of marketing or advertising, action-oriented language is key. A meta description tells the reader exactly what they can do if they click the link. You can try out starting your meta descriptions with words like “Discovery,” “Learn,” or “Shop,” and list what they’ll get if they click.

2. Containing the focus keyword

Google will be way more inclined to use your meta description in the search results if the keyword being searched matches a part of the text in your meta description.

3. Unique to page content

One thing you don’t want to do is copy someone else’s meta description. Odds are if you’re the one taking it, their website is ranking higher than yours which puts you at a loss, to begin with. You want to focus on the user experience instead of winning at the ranking game. You want to make sure that each of your pages has a unique meta description to give the user a phenomenal experience. After all, this could be the first time they’re interacting with your brand.

4. Up to 155 characters

We recommend keeping your meta description under 155 characters. First, you should focus on the message that you want to convey. Keep it short and to the point while making sure you have your focus keyword listed in it. After you create your new meta description, show a couple of friends or team members to see if they get the point off the first glance. If not, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

5. Make it specific and relevant

People searching online are pretty seasoned by now. They’ve seen meta titles and descriptions showing up in search results for quite some time now. If you use a generic meta description, you won’t stand out at all. Users are wanting a site that cares about their user’s experience. Using descriptive words to connect with your target audience is key to having a high click-through rate.

6. Provide a solution or benefit

When writing content or creating new pages, you should always aim to provide a solution or benefit. Your meta descriptions are no different. Make sure you tell the searcher what to expect if they decide to click on your link. The last thing you want is an increase in your website’s bounce rate.

You can list the clear benefit of clicking the link and what they could potentially get in return for doing so. Valuable content is a huge benefit in a marketplace of so much noise nowadays.

If you’d like assessing how your meta descriptions are, contact us for a FREE SEO Audit.

The Ultimate Guide to Meta Titles

Posted on October 21, 2019January 22, 2025 by avintivmstg

A meta title or title tag is an HTML element that specifies the content of a web page. SERPs display title tags as the clickable headline for a given search result. Meta titles are both helpful to search engines and users. An internet user needs a website title so they can see an accurate description of what the page’s content entails before clicking on it. Search engines need a title to determine the relevancy of a web page, so it can show the user the content they’re looking for.

Title tags have a drastic impact on your search rankings and are visible to the average user searching Google. The words will appear at the top of each tab in your browser for both organic results and paid ads.

The title tag explains what the page is about. Google and other search engines look at the title tag and compare that to the rest of the content on the page.

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If you’re working inside of WordPress, we highly recommend the Yoast SEO plugin. The SEO plugin allows you to create a custom title tag within each page very easily. Make sure to keep your title tags descriptive and short.

Think of this as you standing outside next to your competitors with billboards in your hands. What would yours’ say about your webpage versus your competition? Make sure to add in your relevant keywords and location if you’re a local business.

Why are Meta Titles Important?

1. SERPs Rankings

One of the biggest reasons you want to spend some time choosing the right meta title is two-fold. First, you want to make sure the SERPs are ranking you correctly but second, you want the title to be clearly relevant to what they’re searching for. You can rank high but have no conversions because your title doesn’t match what the user is searching for.

2. Social Networks

When posting your phenomenally written blog or web page on social media, you want to make sure that it’s a title people will want to click on. This is the same as searching online. You have a split second to capture someone’s time on social media before they scroll right past your post. Make your title catchy but relevant to what they may be wanting to see.

3. Web Browsers

Your title tag will show up at the top of your web browser. More than likely, your user has many tabs opened up at the top of their website browser. A good way to make sure they don’t accidentally close the browser window is by clearly listing what the title is.

How do I write a good Meta Title?

1. Write unique titles for every page

Just as your website has unique pages, your title needs to be unique to that page as well. Your title should reflect exactly what’s on that specific page. You want your title to catch the user’s eye but also to make sure that search engines know what that specific page is all about. Make the title super easy to read so there is no confusion for the user or a search engine.

2. Watch your title length

Each search engine has its own number of characters they’ll display in the title tag. Google and other popular search engines will usually display 50-60 characters for a title tag in the search results before cutting it off. You should have for right around 50 characters.

Make sure that your most important keyword is toward the beginning of the title. Avoid using ALL CAPS for your titles as it makes it harder for search engines to read.

If your brand name is smaller, you can always add a “| brand name” at the end of your title to get more brand authority.

3. Use your target keyword but don’t overdo it

Yes, it’s true that keywords in your title help you rank higher in the SERPs. There is a right way of adding keywords into a title and the wrong way of doing it. You want to make sure that you’re only adding in keywords that have to do with that specific page. It wouldn’t look good if you ranked for a keyword that has nothing to do with that specific page.

It’s a great opportunity for you to rank higher when you include the main keyword(s) of that page since Google’s algorithm uses the title tag as one of the main ways it determines what the page is about.

This helps Google determine how relevant that specific page is to what the user is searching for. This is another reason you don’t want to add too many keywords in the title so Google doesn’t get confused about what the page is truly about.

4. Put important keywords first

Just like anything else in life, you have a split second to catch a user’s attention. Adding keywords closer to the beginning of your title tag may have more impact on them clicking the title and also search rankings.

Research has shown, people may scan little as the first two words of a headline to tell if it’s worth reading or not.

Good example: Buy CBD Oil | CBD Hemp Oil | Pure CBD Oil | Goat Grass CBD

Bad example: Brand Name | Major Product Category – Minor Product Category – Name of Product

5. Write with your customers in mind

As you now know, title tags are very important to SEO and search rankings. Also, remember that it is even more important to get users to click on the title. Make sure you think about the user experience when you’re creating title tags and meta.

6. Leverage your brand

If you’re trying to get your brand more well-known, it’s smart to add your brand name or site title to your title tag. We recommend putting your brand name or site title at the end of your title.

Learn more about Meta Tags or if you’d like us to take a look at your SEO, contact us for a FREE SEO Audit today!

The Ultimate Guide to Meta Tags

Posted on October 21, 2019January 22, 2025 by avintivmstg

One of the most important aspects of your on-page SEO is meta tags. Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content to search engines and crawlers.

Meta tags provide more relevance syncing between your content and a search query searching for similar content. You will get higher rankings if the relevance of your meta tag matches the user’s satisfaction.

These are common meta tags that should be on every page of your website. It’s a small list but they pack a lot of power for your basic SEO needs.

Canonical Tags

A canonical tag is a way of telling Google and other search engines that a specific URL on your site represents the master copy of a certain page. Using the canonical tag prevents issues caused by content appearing on multiple URLs.

If you have a page with multiple URLs or different pages with similar content, search engines might see those pages as duplicate versions of the same page.

Example: you might type in “www.google.com” or “https://google.com” and it’ll point to the same page. Google sees “www” and “https://” as duplicate versions of the same page so you need to make sure you identify which is the original source page.

For this exact reason, it’s important to include a canonical tag, which tells Google to disregard other content other than this page. This is especially important for your homepage.

Robots Meta Tags

The robots meta tag is an HTML tag that gives instructions to web crawlers to either index or no-index a web page. If you don’t specify a robot meta tag, search engines will choose the default index.

Here are a couple of common robot meta tags

Follow – The search engine crawler will follow all links on the web page
Index – The search engine crawler will index the whole web page
Nofollow – Stops Googlebot from following links on this page.
Noindex – Stops the page from being indexed.
Nosnippet – Stops a text snippet or video preview from being shown in the search results.

There are many reasons you could use robots meta tag. You could input the “nofollow” rule if your web page has a comments section. Due to how many spam comments can come in, you can eliminate search engines from following any links left in the comments section.

The most popular attribute used is the “noindex” tag. A lot of developers use the “noindex” tag when they are developing a brand new website on a development server and they want to make sure Google doesn’t index the site too early.

You can also use a “noindex” tag if you have gated content that you don’t want users to be able to find through search engines.

Title Tags

The most important meta tag we’ll be discussing is your title tags. These tags have a drastic impact on your search rankings and are visible to the average user searching Google. The words will appear at the top of each tab in your browser for both organic results and paid ads.

The title tag explains what the page is about. Google and other search engines look at the title tag and compare that to the rest of the content on the page.

Meta tag, Meta Tags, meta title, On-page SEO, avintiv media, scottsdale SEO agency

Meta Descriptions

Search engines determine the page’s topic and the audience that will find value through your meta description. More importantly, the meta descriptions explain what users will find on the page.

We recommend keeping your description between 165 and 175 characters long.

Meta tag, Meta Tags, meta description, On-page SEO, avintiv media, scottsdale SEO agency

Add in your brand’s name, a keyword or two and what users will find on the page. This could be the first interaction visitorsTitle will have with your brand. Make it a great experience.

Heading Tags

Heading tags are a necessity for any success with on-page SEO. Your landing pages and blog pages should include multiple heading tags, ranging from the H1 to the H6. The most important heading tag is H1.

The H1 heading is usually the page title or name of the page or post. On a category page, your H1 would be the name of that category. On a product page, your H1 would be the name of that product.

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As you write your content, you can also use the H2 and H3 headings to introduce different sections of your page or content. An H2 heading is like a chapter in a book. The section you’re reading now is an H3 heading since it’s a sub-section of a chapter (H2).

It’s extremely rare for most content to get ‘deep’ enough to need the use of H4 tags and beyond unless you’re writing extremely long or really technical content.

If you’d like assessing how your meta descriptions are, contact us for a FREE SEO Audit.