The Importance of Meta Tags (Pt. I)

There are several different variables in how well your website ranks on search engines like Google, and one piece of this large algorithmic data is meta tags. These tags can better describe the page content across your website. This is helpful for users searching for products or services your business offers. Three major types of meta tags include title, description, and keywords. Today’s post will cover the title tag.

Think of the title tag as the title to a chapter of a book. It’s the blue text searchers see when looking at your company’s listing on search engines. Title tags are an important part of what makes people decide whether to visit your site. Its contents should contain important keywords that rank well for companies in your industry, ensuring the content is bolded when people are searching for those keywords on search engines. Title tags can be found in search results, browser titles, and browser tabs. The following images are examples of how title tags work on the Internet. 

 

Remember, the title tag is the most important single tag on your page. It tells search engines what your page is about and it’s still very important for website optimization. You can have a different title tag for each web page of your website. They should be no longer than 70 characters long, including spaces, or the search engines will cut off the tag with a “...” Your most important keywords should be first in your title, with your least important words being last. However, if you’re working in a language that reads right-to-left, then the order would be reversed.

You’ll most likely fit two keyword phrases in your title. Use pipes (|) to separate important phrases without using commas, underscores, dashes, or any punctuation unless they are involved in that specific keyword. We suggest using important keywords that describe your business first, followed by the name of your company. 

These simple steps to the title tag can give your website a higher ranking, more qualified clicks, and more traffic. We’ll be covering two other important tags this week when we highlight description and keyword tags. In the meantime, you can learn more about keyword value in website optimization so you’ll be ready to create powerful tags when the time comes.