Writing the meta data for your website can be one of the most laborious tasks, but it is also one of the most important parts of launching any new site or improving your existing site.
There are three types of meta data that relate directly to search engine optimisation (SEO). They are:
- Title tag/Page title: this is the title that your browser will give to the page. It is also the first port of call for the search engines when they examine your site. It tells them exactly what your page is about. Search engines use this title in your listing.
- Meta description: this should compliment your page title and give a little more detail about the content of the page. Search engines use this description in your listing.
- Meta keywords: keyword stuffing used to be a common ‘trick’ for getting your site to rank highly on Google and as a consequence the meta keywords were given a much smaller significance. In essence they are a way of telling search engines which keywords your page is relevant to.
The reason the page title is the most important is that it holds the highest relevance for search engines, so make sure that each page has a unique page title that explains exactly what that page is about and remember to keep it brief. I always like to put the name of the company in the title to help build brand recognition in the listings on Google.
For example, a site called Clothesonline will have a page title for its blue jeans of:
Blue denim jeans – Clothesonline
For the black jeans page:
Black denim jeans – Clothesonline
And so on – it really is that simple, but very effective.
