Optimizing your web page’s meta tags come with a few additional considerations besides keyword selection. In this blog post, lets discuss some Best Practices for optimizing your meta tags for search engine crawlers.
1). The Title Tag — The Title tag is among the most important factors Search Engine Crawlers look for in SEO. It is meant to define what your page is all about, for both search engine crawlers and users who are searching for your site in either Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Here is an image to see how your title tag appears in the search index.
It is an SEO best practice to keep your title tag to 70 characters long, including spaces.
2). The Description Tag — The Description tag is also an important factor for SEO. The description tag should reinforce the title tag and provide a little more information about the page to both the crawler and the user who is searching for your site. When writing your description tag, make sure to include your chosen keywords for the page and clearly define what the pages are about. Also be sure your sentences are grammatically correct, as users will be reading the description in their search results, as the example image below will show.
The SEO best practice length for the description tag is roughly 150-180-characters, including spaces.
3). The Keyword Tag — The Keyword Tag is currently not accounted for by search engines, so stuffing a bunch of words you want to rank for is not going to help. A good practice would be to include the keyword or key phrase you are optimizing the page for, just in the event that one day Google makes a change and starts to again account for the keyword tag in their algorithm.
Once you have selected your keywords, following these guidelines will ensure you are using Best Practices for optimizing your meta content. There is no need to over-do-it when writing meta content. Simply do your best to optimize each page with a single and unique keyword or phrase. Make sure each page has unique meta tags related to that keyword and you will likely see increases in your rankings.
Duplicate content can come in many shapes and sizes. For instance, there can be duplicate pages, duplicate domains and lack of canonicalization. What most people often don’t realize is that one of the most common and easiest to fix forms of duplicate content can be the meta titles and descriptions. It has been said that by simply tweaking ones title tags, a site can gain significant positions in the search engines.
Titles tags are probably the most important of the meta tags for two reasons: search engines weigh them very highly and users can actually see them as they appear in the browser window and in the search engine results pages. Making these unique, at least on the top level pages, can make a world of difference to a website’s ranking possibilities. People need to understand that the search engines can actually choose to display a different title tag to the one that’s on the website if they feel the one they choose is more appropriate. Constructing title tags so that they are at an appropriate length (70 characters or less), and making sure they are unique, relevant and have the primary keyphrase for the page will ensure that you choose what content is displayed in the SERPs, not the search engines.
Let’s face it, social media is everywhere. When listening to the radio or watching the nightly news, it is hard not to hear about the wave of social media. Many businesses are jumping on the band wagon and dipping their toes in the social media water. While this can be a great marketing strategy, it is also important to note, that social media channels are not the “silver bullet” of online marketing. Many times marketers will neglect one aspect of their marketing campaign to try another one.
As a business, moving into social media is a great idea, but not at the expense of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is important to make sure that you do not neglect your website as you move resources to developing the various channels necessary to have a strong presence in the various social media outlets. When moving into social media, it is important to have a plan to keep your website updated and relevant for the users. This will also help to support your social media effort. Below are some things that you should always be working on with your SEO alongside your social media campaigns.
Title and Description Meta Tags — Does each page of your site have unique meta data that is relevant to the page content? If not, work on this to ensure that every page of your site has a chance of ranking for the keywords that are featured in the content.
Keyword Research — When was the last time you researched the words you are going after? Keyword research is something that should be done on a continual basis. As search trends change, you need to update your keyword lists so you can target the words that your customers are searching for.
Linking Strategy — What is your linking strategy? Do you have one? Building backlinks is one of the most important factors when it comes to boosting search results. Having a strategy to build high quality links to your site should be on the top of your list for things to accomplish. Links can come from directories, blogs, authorities in your industry and other websites. Create a plan and stick to it.
Web Design — Is your web site still the one that your cousin created for the business in 1996? A well thought out optimized web design can be the difference between conversions and a 90% bounce rate. If your site is not appealing, you will lose customers once you get them to the site. Now may be the right time for an updated look and feel, or a complete redesign.
Social media and SEO go hand in hand. It is important to make sure that you have the bases covered in both and are creating content in each to give your customers new and interesting information, so they will have a reason to continue visiting your website and your other social media channels.
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