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Why Titles and Meta Descriptions Matter

Search Engine Optimisation covers such a wide area these days that for the typical webmaster or content manager it's difficult to know where to start.  SEO companies closely guard many of their techniques for boosting website rankings but you would be amazed to know that some of these techniques are actually relatively simple. One thing I've learnt over the past year or so is the importance of the title and the Meta Description tags.

The title tag is the line of HTML code starting with <title> that makes the title of your page appear at the very top of your browser. This page for instance has the title 'Why Titles and Meta Descriptions Matter | dannycassidy.net'. This text plays a key factor in determining how Google and other search engines treat your page. When writing titles for your pages there are a few things you should keep in mind.

• The title should be as relevant as possible to the subject matter of the page - this may seem like an obvious thing to say but think about the keyword(s) that wish the page to be ranked for and include at least one in your title.
• I also include my company name in titles as a means of associating it with the subject matter and keyword(s). 
• Keep your titles short as Google only includes 65 characters (including spaces)
• Consider the 'clickability' of your titles. A good newspaper headline writer would make a good website title writer as essentially they are trying to achieve the same thing - to attract the fleeting glance of a reader and convince them that your content is worth further investigation. A good example of this is titles that start 'Why...', 'How to...' or 'My Top 10 Tips For...'. This kind of title appeals to many internet users because people are frequently trying to figure out how to do new things and understand how something works. 

The Meta Description tag acts as a summary of the page content and appears underneath the title in a Google search. Usually a couple of sentences will do here, try to be as descriptive and relevant as possible and keep to the Google limit of 200 characters (including spaces).

To achieve search engine optimized titles and Meta Descriptions you'll either need to dive into the HTML code for your site if it's static or if you have a dynamic site you'll hopefully have a content management system that allows full control over these attributes. I use MODx CMS for my client websites as it's packed with SEO features.

If you are looking for a useful title and Meta Description analysis tool then Website Grader is worth a look.