A proper title for your content and the description displayed by search engines is a factor of SEO that you can be in direct control of.
While it’s not going to make or break your standings to the extent it might have in prior years, ignoring the name of your article or discounting it and not providing a tailored meta description will result in whatever default your content management system is set to. And this could affect your rankings.
What “Meta” Means
The word “meta” itself means “self-referential.” Referring to self.
A meta title is simply the title that is displayed on search engines when someone clicks on your entry.
Normally the default for a meta title is the title of your article plus the separator dash plus the name of your site. So if you were writing an article about How to Properly Maintain an Ant Farm and your website was called Ant Farms United, your default meta title would be something like this:
How to Properly Maintain an Ant Farm — Ant Farms United
Keep in mind that the longer your title is, the higher chance you have of it being truncated by the search engine.
For example, if the name of your article was instead How to Properly Maintain an Ant Farm In Subzero Weather then your meta description would read as follows:
How to Properly Maintain an Ant Farm in Subzero Weather — Ant
The final part of your website (Farms United) would be cut off because Google displays a certain maximum of characters.
Same goes for your meta description. You normally have 160 characters of text that shows up below your meta title on the search engine result page.
Determine what you want readers to see and put that data in the meta description otherwise the default will be what it is (sometimes the first part of the article or whatever your CMS defaults to).
Keywords in Meta Titles & Descriptions
Try to place your keyword or keyword phrase within your meta title but before doing this, take a look at what other people ranking in your field are doing.
Look at page 1 of Google to see how your competitors are naming their articles and what’s taking the number 1 spot. Look at how long the titles are and what keywords are ranking so you can get an idea of what is working and what isn’t.
Then go below the title and read what the description on the search engine result page is — that’s the meta description. See how many times your competitors are using keywords or keyword phrases within that 160 character description.
Adjust your own meta description and ensure you include your keyword or keyword phrase within this.
Everything Is Connected
The Internet ushered in a new age of connectivity that brought the world together in unforeseen ways. While some argue that it has at the same time isolated people within their respective four walls, it’s impossible to argue the speed at which people can now connect to one another in some form or another on an immediate basis.
People are able to locate you and the services your site provides instantly and at any time of the day. As your online SEO standings increase, so does the importance of the user experience your site provides. And truthfully the better your user experience is, the more quickly your site will rise in authority and dominance online. So no matter how you look at it, it’s vital that your site is providing the best service you can deliver without delay.
MindCloud works with companies around the world to provide tailor-made seamless connections between your site or product and every online and digital platform required in order to deliver the most effective and efficient service.
Contact us for a free consultation of how this can help you.
