How to write a meta title and description

Meta titles and descriptions won’t suddenly make your website rocket to the top of the search engine rankings. But they are important in website SEO. When written well, they will entice browsers to click through to your website, which is surely the main goal here, and will lead to your better search engine results in the long run.

And if you’re lucky, Google will use your title and description in its search results.

What are meta titles and descriptions?

Meta titles and descriptions are the bits of HTML code, and wording, that sit behind your website, on each web page, and help search engines to index your content.

Here’s an example of meta title and description, written by the Ultrix copywriter, and used by Google in its search returns:

IT Support | Cloud and Web Services | Cultrix, Barnsley
IT support, cloud and web services from Microsoft Silver status IT support company Cultrix, providing 100% support to UK business requirements.

The top text is the meta title. And the longer description underneath, is the meta description.

Tell browsers what your webpage is about

Meta titles and descriptions are your advertising opportunities. But you must also tell browsers what to expect from the page. It’s an amazing opportunity to really sell yourself, and get across your reason for being, and why browsers should click through.

In our example, we are stating very clearly that Cultrix provide IT support, cloud and web services to businesses. But we are also telling browsers that Cultrix have Microsoft Silver status, and work to support businesses to UK requirements, with a nod to compliance, and being 100% reliable.

Should you use keywords in meta titles and description?

Yes. You should definitely use keywords in meta titles and descriptions, but only if these words are a true representation of what’s contained in the web page, and are in the page. It’s no good putting keywords of ‘delicious pink apples’ into a meta title, if the page has zero mention of delicious pink apples.

Remember that the ‘meta’ needs to be what the page is about, enforcing the keywords already in the main body copy of the page.

(‘Meta’ actually means ‘referring to itself’.)

The basics to remember when writing meta titles and descriptions

Meta titles

Meta descriptions

Maximum 55-60 characters long or your risk Google cutting off the title mid-word    Use relevant keywords that faithfully describe what the webpage is about    Put keyword/s to the front of the title; mention your company name if you like to, but put it after keyword/s    Make meta titles unique to every page on your website    Don’t be afraid to write your title as a long-tail keyword, for example, ‘How to write a meta titles and description’

Maximum 155-160 characters    Create a unique, compelling description for your webpage that accurately tells browsers what to expect when they click through    Use keywords, but not at the expense of clarity and writing a description that describes the content you’re providing    Make meta descriptions unique to every page on your website    Include a clear call to action if you have space, for example, ‘click to find out more’, ‘read our advice’, etc.

How will I know if I’ve got the right number of characters?

Write your meta titles and descriptions in Word. All you need to do is highlight your title/description and click on the wordcount at the bottom-left side of your screen. A box should appear that tells you the wordcount, but also, more importantly in this case, the character count with spaces.

Good luck with your meta titles and descriptions! 

 

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