As we know, Google is the king of search engines and is the major focus of SEO strategies no matter the business or industry. Google, however, uses complex and ever-changing algorithms which can determine how well your website performs on its platform.
A major factor in your site’s ranking on Google is how well you optimize its metadata, including but not limited to page titles and meta descriptions for all pages on your website. Below, I will highlight some of the best practices when it comes to optimizing your metadata
What Is Metadata?
Metadata is the information that search engines display on their result pages to tell users exactly what content a website’s specific page contains. Metadata can be broken down into two main categories: page titles and meta descriptions.
Page Titles
A page title is the blue clickable link found on Google’s search engine results page (SERP). Page titles should include the name and location, if applicable, of your business as well as keywords relating to the content on this specific page and website as a whole. There are three main focuses when writing page titles. They should be relevant, informative, and concise. Google only supports up to 60 characters within a page title before it cuts off, so it is vastly important to be concise- a good way to do this is by replacing ‘and’ with an ampersand. Keep in mind that the page title is what potential site visitors will see when deciding if they want to click on your page!
Meta Descriptions
Just below your page title on a SERP is the meta description. The meta description is longer than your page title, with a maximum of 160 characters. The job of your meta description is to use keywords and longer sentences to describe to users what exactly is on the page within your website. Think of a meta description as a way to directly answer a user’s possible query, while urging them to visit your site to learn more.
Let Boston Web Marketing Fix Your Metadata
By tying keyword research into the creation of proper metadata Boston Web Marketing can help boost your website’s ranking on Google. Allow our expert staff to handle the research and implementation of metadata and see your SEO improve firsthand! Contact Boston Web Marketing today to learn more.