Writing strong meta titles is crucial to effective SEO practices and ranking in organic search because search engines analyze these titles to navigate the topic of your page and rank it accordingly. Try thinking of meta titles as the cards in a library card catalog; a search engine is the organized index of information, and the meta titles are methodically arranged cards within that index.
The Balance Small Business has some tips for meta title best practices and what to avoid.
Best practices:
- Stick to a 55-character limit
- Be specific but concise
- Make the keyword/keyphrase obvious
- Incorporate relevant power words
- Make it interesting
This is a great example from the CoSchedule blog because it stays within the Google character limit, makes good use of the keyphrase (i.e. “Blog Post Ideas”), and contains some compelling power words, like “Creative” and “Delight”.
What to avoid:
- Not creating a page title
- Making your meta titles too short and vague
- Exceeding 60 characters
- Keyword stuffing
- Not connecting your title to the main content
FAQs
A meta title, also known as a title tag, refers to the text that is displayed on search engine result pages and browser tabs to indicate the topic of a webpage. Marketing Dictionary.
How do you come up with a meta title? ›
Convey What Your Webpage Is About
Put it in the meta title. Is this a product page about an item you're selling? Make sure your product is mentioned in the title. Being to the point and including relevant information is the best way to get attention to your webpage.
What is a meta description example? ›
A meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes a webpage's content. It's the snippet of text, often around 160 characters long, that appears under your page title in search engine result pages. In the screenshot below, the meta description reads “Try Shopify free and start a business or grow an existing one.
What is the difference between headline and meta title? ›
A meta title is an HTML element that's crucial for website optimization. It's not the page headline per se, but it acts as a name tag for your web page. A meta title is also sometimes referred to as “title tag,” “page title,” or “title.”
What is a meta title description? ›
A meta description tag generally informs and interests users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about. They are like a pitch that convince the user that the page is exactly what they're looking for.
What is social media meta title? ›
Social meta tags allow website owners to have some control over what content shows up when a web page is shared on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Social meta tags, also commonly referred to as open graph meta tags, rely on the Open Graph Protocol.
What are the keywords in meta title? ›
Meta keywords are meta tags that you can use to give search engines more information about a page's content. They're found in a webpage's HTML source code, and are not visible to visitors.
How do I get the meta title and description? ›
Browsers do NOT display the Meta Description.
Only search engines read and use this information. So again we need to view the source code (aka HTML code) just like we did to find the Title. But instead of searching for <title>, we're going to search for “<meta name=”description” ….” See the image below for an example.
Where is meta title? ›
Meta tags, including meta titles, are not displayed on a page but within the HTML code of a web page as: <title>Subject of page | Company Name</title>. The meta title is used by search engines to index the page and controls how a page shows up in the SERPs.
How long should meta title be? ›
The ideal length for the meta title is 50–60 characters. Google starts to cut off the title tag after 50-60 characters. Hence it is a good practice to keep your title tag around this length.
Meta tags are areas in HTML code that contain information about a website. Learn more. In order for the title tag to be a real meta tag, its syntax would have to be <meta name="title" content="Here goes the title"> . Instead, it's just <title>Here goes the title</title> .
Why are meta titles important? ›
A well-crafted and compelling meta title can attract more clicks from users, increasing the page's CTR. A higher CTR is a positive signal to search engines and can contribute to improved rankings. User Experience: A clear and concise meta title provides users with a quick understanding of what the page is about.
What are meta keywords in title? ›
Meta keywords are meta tags that you can use to give search engines more information about a page's content. They're found in a webpage's HTML source code, and are not visible to visitors.
What is the minimum meta title? ›
Keep your title length around 60 characters. For your meta description length, keep it around 160 characters. Although title tags and meta descriptions don't count as a ranking factor, CTR is. Optimizing your title and description to increase your CTR is crucial for your ranking.
