As a content writer, you might think that meta description and meta title are necessary but you probably didn’t know why it is so important to make it perfect, or why anyone would need a guide or a tutorial to learn to write them accurately.
Here’s why:
Our SEO practices or strategies work only as long as the algorithm of Google is unchanged for a time. And considering Google changes their search algorithm 500 to 600 times a year, let’s say that most of our SEO practices might be outdated. But then how do we stay relevant and keep our ranking on the top? Do we try to predict the new changes or do we change SEO practices, often?
I don’t think either is possible.
So here’s what we will do instead – focus on other elements that are long term, and can help us secure our rank at the top of search results. These elements are – meta descriptions and meta title.
Meta descriptions
These are the elements and part of the content that show you some immediate information about your site on results. They are found right under the blue link.
If you have a website and you have never worked on your meta description before, Google took care of it, automatically. Since that’s not our goal here, we will talk about some tips to write an ideal meta description:
- There are limitations as to how many characters you should use, and it is recommended that it should be around 130, but most importantly, don’t exceed 160.
- The use of keywords should seem natural and not forced.
- Skillfully explain what users can expect from the page.
- Do not use the same description for each page of the website.
- Make sure the meta descriptions don’t include non-alphanumeric numbers.
Meta titles
Having spoken about SEO and rankings previously, it is vital to point out here that title tags are one of the most important factors that have an impact on search rankings. Apart from that, title tags are also helpful when we have multiple tabs open and we can tell which tab has which site open.
The title tags are HTML elements and links to the respective page.
Here’s a simple and small guide to follow for writing an ideal meta title:
- Limitations are here as well. But different in amount. Focus on restricting the title to 60 characters.
- Use your primary keyword at the very beginning.
- A unique title tag for each page is like an open secret for an ideal title tag. One way to write a unique title is to focus on what unique things your page is providing to the people.
- In case you have a popular and well-known brand, consider adding its name to the title.
A SEMRush experiment will tell you that focusing on limited characters isn’t always necessary or that meta tags(meta descriptions and meta titles) exceeding limitations have proved to rank higher. But these all come with experience and skills developed over practice and time. Meanwhile, it is better to follow the guidelines provided for ideal meta tags.
This article is written by Team Virtuoso. For content writing services connect with Seema at +91 9899446830 (whatsapp/Call)
