In order to capture a highly coveted spot at the top of search results, your webpage listings need to be optimized for online search. The specific components that make up a webpage listing are the title tag, H1 tag and meta description.
A commonly overlooked aspect of SEO is title tag optimization. Title tags (also known as HTML titles) are the blue clickable titles that appear in search results and communicate the topic of that webpage. For this reason, title tags should be as direct and relevant to the page’s contents as possible to help search engines match it to an online query. Title tags are also how the header of a webpage will look when it’s shared in a social post, so that is all the more reason to create clear, accurate descriptions.
Most website domains have tools to automatically create title tags, but if you find yourself in need of creating your own title tag, you can do so by adding the
Here are some tips for writing good title tags:
Keep Title Tags Brief
Google only displays about 60-70 characters of a page title (depending on the size of the screen), so keep your titles closer to 60 characters or less.
Include the Three components of a Good Title Tag
The words you choose should describe what’s on the page, trigger the reader’s emotions and include a prominent keyword related to the webpage.
Add Trigger Words
Trigger words give your audience an idea of how your content will answer their search query – in fact, “how” is a trigger word, and so is “what,” “when,” “why,” “where,” “best,” “review” and so on.
Keep Title Tags Unique
Reusing title tag copy can flag your webpages as duplicates and penalize your search ranking.
Use Your Brand Name Responsibly
Your homepage title tag should start with your brand name, but inventory and service pages should prioritize the keywords that will match the search queries.
To sum up, optimize your title tags for online search by making them succinct and direct and including a target keyword.
H1 tags appear in HTML code as
Best practices for H1 tags include:
Use Keywords
Drive the most benefits from your H1 tag by adding your main keyword, as well as any secondary keywords. But don’t stuff your H1 tag with keywords – you want to keep it readable. First, write for your visitors and then tweak the content to appeal to search engines.
Meet User Intent
Search engines are tasked with identifying user intent and delivering satisfying search results. Just adding a keyword doesn’t guarantee you’ll fulfill the users’ intent. When you’re optimizing a webpage, identify the overall purpose of the page and what question(s) it answers for online shoppers, and make sure your H1 tag reflects that. Your H1 tag pulls shoppers in, and your webpage needs to deliver.
Match Your H1 Tags to Title Tags
As long as your H1 tag satisfies user intent, you can match it to the page’s title tag for an added SEO benefit. However, you may find you’ll need to omit a few words from your H1 tags to maintain best practices.
Keep H1 Tags Short
Unlike title tags, there’s no technical character limit for H1 tags, but we recommend limiting them to 20-70 characters. You want your H1 tags to be straightforward, but not so short that they’re missing valuable keywords.
Use One H1 Tag per Page
While you can use more than one H1 tag on a page, we don’t advise that you do. Adding more than one H1 tag dilutes the power of a single, properly optimized H1 tag and can cause your website to lose out on SEO benefits.
Make Your H1 Tags Stand Out
Your H1 tags should stand out on your webpages, not just search results. They should be the most noticeable element on your page, and therefore they should be at the top of the webpage in big, bold font.
A meta description is an HTML tag that could be featured below the title tag in search results to provide some additional information about a page’s purpose. It gives you more opportunity to convince online users to click on your website.
The purpose of a meta description is to drive more clicks to your website. Unlike title tags and H1 tags, search engines don’t directly consider meta descriptions in their search rank algorithms, so some marketers feel it doesn’t provide an SEO benefit. However, it does benefit your SEO indirectly by encouraging more clicks from shoppers, and websites that have a higher click-through rate get more attention from search engines. There’s not always a guarantee that search engines will display your meta descriptions, but they are worth including for the chance to boost your webpage’s SEO.
Here are the characteristics of a good meta description:
Make Your Meta Descriptions Descriptive
There is no character limit to meta descriptions, so you can take as much space as needed to convey your message. We recommend using between 120 and 155 characters to keep your message descriptive yet to the point for readers.
Make Meta Descriptions Actionable
Use an active voice to motivate shoppers to click on your website. Doing so makes your description easy to read, and shoppers know exactly what they’re getting when they visit the webpage.
Add a Call to Action
If you have space in your meta description, add a call to action that highlights the next step and gets shoppers excited to learn more. Including a clear call to action encourages shoppers to act swifter and progress on through your website.
Include Your Target Keyword
Adding a target keyword to your meta description can help it match with an online search query. Search engines may highlight it in the search results, bringing more visibility to your website.
Keep Meta Descriptions Unique
As with all components of webpage search results, the content for your meta descriptions should be unique. Using the same description for more than one webpage will negatively affect your search results – to the point that no meta description is better than a duplicate one. Create meta descriptions that reflect the individual topic of each webpage to strengthen your webpages’ presence in search results.
To learn more about optimizing your webpages for search listings, connect with Net Driven today.
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