How to write SEO page titles and descriptions

Do you know what an SEO page title or description is? Yes? No? Don’t worry read on and all will become clear. I’ll even show you how to write them both properly.

 

Ok, so SEO isn’t particularly sexy, or that interesting to most people BUT it is so important to us bloggers! Google gives your search traffic with intent. Social media doesn’t. When people search Google they want the answer to something and if your post has good SEO they will find the answer in your post. Social media gives you much more opportunistic traffic who might or might not want your information.

 

SEO page titles and descriptions tell Google what your blog is about so they can offer your content in the relevant search results. This information is also called SEO meta data and we really need to get this stuff right, if we want to grow our blog traffic and increase our search rankings (which number we appear in the search results for a given keyword/keyword phrase).

 

Let’s break this down.

 

What are SEO page titles and descriptions?

 

Your posts SEO page title is the text that appears in the Google search result and at the top of your browser window.

 

The posts SEO page description is the text explaining what the post OR page is about which shows up in the Google search result.

 

Why should you bother with SEO page titles and descriptions?

 

As mentioned above you need to tell Google what your site and posts are about. Google is good, but it can’t guess, at least not as accurately as the information you could give it (it’s far too busy for that!).  So you have to tell it by optimising your posts and page properly.

 

As you’ve probably guessed SEO page titles and descriptions should be just one part of your overall SEO strategy. For example, if you fully optimise your posts but your site takes 20 minutes to load and is full of broken links, you won’t see the benefits of the on page SEO. You can read more about all the factors that go into rankings here.

 

If you’re new to SEO then start with getting your posts optimised and you can build up and improve the other factors as you move forward.

 

How to write SEO page titles and descriptions effectively.

 

Writing your post title isn’t about plucking something relevant out of thin air and hoping for the best. You need to make sure the title you choose accurately represents your content AND it is the words people are actually using when they and searching for the information you’re providing in the post or page.

 

These words they’re using are called keywords. Keywords can be a single word or a keyword phrase (3-7 words), these can also be called long tail keywords.

 

The most important step is to pick the best keyword phrase for your post. You might want to check out this post on how to find the right keywords.

 

I use the WordPress plugin Yoast SEO. (I have the premium version) to help make sure my on page SEO is good for each post and page I write, so if you haven’t already you might want to check out the free Yoast version.

You need to keep your SEO page titles to under 60 characters. Otherwise, the end will be cut off in the search results. Including your keywords at the beginning will improve the SEO, although bear in mind reader experience too.

 

If you want to check how good your headline is when you’re happy with the SEO/keyword part, you can check out the CoSchedule Headline tool, which grades your headlines. So you might find making one tweak helps improve your headline.

Your SEO descriptions need to between 120 and 160 characters

 

When writing your meta data it is important not to stuff the description with your keyword. Placing it once, near to the beginning is fine. Think also about what would make you click? It needs to accurately tell you potential reader what the post/page is about and how they will benefit.

 

Need an example?

 

Main keyword phrase is “become a brand ambassador”. The SEO page title is: How to become a brand ambassador. The SEO description would be: “Become a brand Ambassador to really improve your blog income and your exposure. Learn how to find and secure these lucrative contracts.”

 

How to use Yoast

 

You just pop in your target keyword, page title, and page meta description into the Yoast panel which will appear on your WordPress post when you install the plugin. Then Yoast will analyse your post and show you via a handy traffic light system whether your SEO on that post or page is good.

There you have it, I hope you now feel more confident in your understanding of SEO page titles and descriptions. If you have any questions just let me know.