Atlanta SEO Company | Atlanta Web Design | Interactive Search Marketing

  • Home
  • SEO Success Stories
  • Services
    • SEO
    • Web Design
    • Social Media
  • Reviews
  • About Us
  • Contact
Click to call: (404) 482-2577

The Meta Description and SEO

January 3, 2011 By Interactive Search Marketing Leave a Comment

What is a a meta description tag?

A meta description tag is piece of code written in HTML that gives a brief “description” (as the name implies) of what the web page is about. The tag is usually found in addition to a meta keyword tag and is normally found below the title tag and above the closing head tag.

What does it have to do with SEO?

Take a look at this search result pulled from Google:

Search Result

In the purple you will see the title tag (more information on this can be found here ). Below that you see the description. This is a short description that can contain keywords and should be informative as you want the person searching to know that your page is relevant to their query.

How important is the meta description?

Search engines don’t really place a whole of emphasis on a meta description in comparison to say, the title. However, it is still a crucial part of any SE optimization plan. A good description tells the user how relevant the information is to their search, and is arguably the most important piece of a page when it comes to getting users to click on your page. It is well known that a lot of users will read the description before they read the title tag. So even though SE’s may not place a whole lot of weight on the tag, getting traffic to your page is certainly going to make up for this.

Ok, so what is the best way create and structure a meta description tag?

Generally, it is better to use up to and no more than approximately 155 characters. The reason for this is that when the searcher reads the description, they see a complete and concise description. If it is longer than this, you will get a trailing ellipsis (…), and this in generally bad practice. The SE’s will read more characters than this however.

*Tip

If you are having problems thinking of a good description, a good rule of thumb is to tell why, what, who, when, where, and how of your page content.

Filed Under: HTML, SEM, SEO, Web Development Tagged With: brief description, computer jargon, description, html, html element, information retrieval, meta, meta description, meta description tags, meta element, meta keywords tag, metadata, page rank, search engines, seo, tag, tags, title tags, web 2.0

Purpose of Title tag in SEO

December 28, 2010 By Interactive Search Marketing Leave a Comment

What is a Title Tag?

Look up in the top left hand corner of your web browser. What do you see? These few little words are arguably the most important words on a website. The “title” of the page is just that. It tells not only the user, but the search engines (SE) what the page is about, just like the title of a book.

As it turns out, just a quick little rearrangement of these words can boost your SE rankings quite a bit. This can mean the difference between making a sale or not, so fix your title tags!

Where is the Title Tag?

The title tag is located in the HTML of each page. The tag should be as close to the very top of the page as possible, placed inside of the <heading> tags.  Also, when searched for in SE’s, it is little short line of text that tells the searcher what the page is about.

Search Result

What goes inside of the Title tags?

This is both amazingly simple and tricky at the same time. Some people believe that just putting the company name in the title tag is all that is required. However, smart SEO dictates that you include a keyword rich description in addition to the company name.


Ok, but what does that mean?

Alright, say that you are a seller of marbles in Atlanta Georgia. You will want to think about the area you want to focus on selling. For example, do you want to focus more on the local marble market in Atlanta, or focus on the entire state of Georgia?

So let’s assume that you choose to market just in Atlanta. You should come up with a couple of short phrases to include. Here is an example:

“Insert Your Company Name” | Atlanta Marble Company | Marble Manufacturer in Atlanta

Don’t stress out too much over trying to get the perfect title tag combination because it doesn’t exist. The best way to go about it is to try different patterns of keywords in different orders. You will find that some of the terms you search for will work better than others. Also remember that you are providing a description for both humans and SEs, so make it as informative and doesn’t look like the tag was prepared solely for the SEs.

How many words can a Title Tag have?

Generally, about 55 words characters up in the description across all of the top SE’s. However, don’t worry if your title tag is longer than that because the SE’s will still index all the words.

*Tip

Sometimes it may easier to fill in the title tag after the content has be placed on the page. That way you ensure that your page title is relevant to your content. Also, make sure that the title is unique. This means create a custom title, and not just copy a sentence or heading from the content.

Filed Under: Featured, HTML, SEO Tagged With: computer jargon, information, information retrieval, meta element, metadata, reference, search engines, seo, serves, storage, tag, tags, title, title tags, web 2.0, web browser

Blog Categories

Our Recent Stuff

Google-Analytics-Ghost-Boo

Is Ghost Referral Spam Haunting Your Analytics (And Confusing Your Clients)?

Many webmasters and SEOs are currently working through a new online spam game that’s affecting … [Read More...]

Mobile

Mobile Subdomain vs Responsive Web Design and SEO

Updated May 1st, 2015: Is your site mobile ready? Google's latest algorithm update rolled out on … [Read More...]

Marketing

Do You Even Lift? Executing A Content Marketing Strategy That Gets Results

What do getting swole and content marketing have in common? More that you might think.  By … [Read More...]

HTML5 Logo

Can HTML5 Help With Your SEO?

HTML5 has been a growing standard for about 2 years. Although the "5" denotes that this is the fifth … [Read More...]

PNG vs JPEG

JPEG or PNG? – Increasing Page Speed with Proper Image Formatting

Google looks at how quickly your page loads when its bots are crawling your site. Images and … [Read More...]

Tags

advertising basic basics best seo blogging business business presence computer jargon criticism of facebook facebook Facebook Business Facebook Business Pages google hubspot information retrieval internet internet marketing internet search engines marketing metadata meta element online social networking presence questions search engine optimization search engines seo seo companies seo company seo copywriting seo services seo writing social information processing social media social media marketing social networking social network service tag tags the facebook era title tags twitter web 2.0 web presence world wide web

Follow Us!

Our Address

Interactive Search Marketing
2179 Bouldercrest Rd SE, Suite 1A
Atlanta, GA 30316
(404) 482-2577
Email Us

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2023 · Epik on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in