How to Optimize Your Meta Title for SEO

You need to develop a sound SEO strategy if you want your website to get found online. Incorporating relevant keywords and finding suitable backlinks can help achieve this goal.

Another factor involved in SEO is coming up with a strong meta title. 

First, What’s a Meta Title?

Take a look at the tabs open in your web browser right now. See the text at the top of each tab? That’s the meta title!

This description helps human readers know what a particular web page is about. It’s also how search engines index web pages.

How Do You Add Meta Titles to Web Pages?

There are two main ways of adding meta titles, depending on the content management system (CMS) you’re using.

If you’re already familiar with HTML, this will be pretty easy.

The basic form is  <title> Your Meta Title </title>

Not too bad, right?

But it gets even easier if you have a CMS like WordPress that does the HTML translations for you and gives you a bar where you can enter the desired meta description.

Either way, pretty simple.

How Do You Optimize a Meta Description?

You know that keywords are essential if you have even basic SEO knowledge. 

You incorporate keywords in your web pages, blogs, and tags; now it’s time to start adding keywords to your meta titles.

The trick is to write them, so they appeal to both search engines and the people who use them.

Don’t try to game the system by using keywords that rank well but have nothing to do with the web page – search engines are cracking down, but beyond that, it’s a quick way to get people fleeing from your website.

Choose words and phrases that describe the page naturally without being too wordy.

It’s not a full headline or sentence, but it is the first thing people see in search results. Think of it as the TV Guide movie description – concise and to the point.

Generally, meta titles should be under 70 characters, with 60 characters or less being ideal.

Your most important keyword(s) should be at the front of the title, with less important ones.

As a general rule, you should probably avoid putting your company name in the meta description unless your brand is already well-known. If not, you’re better off using descriptive keywords.

Another critical thing to note – each web page should have a unique meta description.

How Does This Fit Into SEO Strategy?

Any SEO strategy worth its salt will incorporate several different objectives. The meta title is often the first thing people see when searching for your products or services online.

It goes along with the keyword optimization within the website content itself, which further helps search engines properly index and rank pages.

Once the web page is ranking well in search engines, readers will see the description and hopefully choose to click it to view the page. 

If the page matches the description of what they’re looking for, they’ll stay on the page to keep reading.

This is why keywords need to make sense within the content. If the web page is something readers weren’t expecting or looking for, they’ll leave, which can negatively impact SEO.

If you have questions about incorporating meta titles into your SEO plan, feel free to reach out for further information.