Page Title and Meta Description

You really need Google's help ranking your web pages in search results if you want people to find them. Fortunately, you can add a couple of important pieces of information to your pages which will help with this.

Page titles and meta descriptions can't be seen by visitors on your website , but don't be fooled into thinking they don't matter! The text you write for these fields stands a very good chance of appearing in search results, like this:

So They're Important for Search Engines?

Yes! The page title in particular can influence how your web page is ranked in search results.

They're Vital to Grab Potential Customers, too

If thinking of search engines makes you want to snooze, look at the other vital function of pages titles and meta descriptions: they're your first point of contact with a potential customer. Use them to persuade someone to click on your link rather than your competitors'. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there...

Ok, You've Convinced Me to Use Them - How?

When you create or edit a page on your site, there's a tab across the top called "Head". Click on that.

As you add a Title you'll notice that we've added a helpful word and character count. This isn't as random a feature as it might first appear. Google only has room to display a certain number of characters in search results, so you need to work within certain limits.

  • Page title character limits - we recommend a maximum of 55 - 60 characters.
  • Meta description character limits - try not to exceed 230 characters.

This is just a guide - the actual number of characters Google displays could depend on the varying width of some letters, whether you use a lot of big shouty capitals (not cool) or Google simply deciding one morning to redesign the whole layout of results pages. Hey, it's their train set, we play by their rules.

Two Page Title and Meta Description Tips You Can't Live Without

  1. Make the page title and meta description on each page of your website different. How is Google to know which page of your site to show in search results if they're all the same?
  2. Want a slight ranking edge? Put your major keyword closer to the front of the page title. For example, instead of:

Try this instead:

For more help with getting your web pages ranked by search engines, ask us for information about our SEO and internet marketing services.

Additional Metadata

Should you need to, you can add additional metadata to any page of your site. Sometimes this can be requested when integrating with third parties like Google Analytics or other tracking sites.