How To Optimize URL, Title Tags, Headers, Meta Description, And Content
Meta tags are invisible tags that help you optimize your web content for search engines and drive more traffic. Also, they help search engines learn about your website by providing them with essential information. The title and summary you will see on SERP checker are often derived from how the author has set up their title tags and meta descriptions. Nevertheless, not all meta tags are effective and have a positive effect on search engine optimization. Here is a guide on meta tags from Bold SEO Adelaide, and how they can be optimized for SEO.
Also read: The Significant Link Between SEO and Web Design
Title Tag
The title tag is the first thing that shows up in a SERP snippet. This is actually coding on the backend that shows up on the front end. Title tags assist search engines, such as Safari, Chrome, and Google, in understanding your page’s content.
Title tags have character limits that normally do not exceed 55 characters, so the tags should be kept within these limitations. If you cross the limit, the title tag will cut off in the search results hurting your SEO. Before publishing your web page, you can use the snippet editor to view how your title tag will appear in SERPs.
How To Write Title Meta Tags For SEO
- Title tags should not exceed 55 characters.
- Using numbers in titles works better; the same is with title meta tags.
- Consider adding modifiers to your title tag such as buy, find, how-to, and top.
- Ideally, place your primary keyword at the beginning.
- For every page, there should be a unique title.
Yoast SEO plugin makes this process easier by letting you view a preview of your page as it appears in search results so that you know how it looks.
Meta Description
A meta description is similar to the title tag and has equal importance. A meta description is a snippet that appears underneath the title tag. Meta description usually provides all details about your page, and this is the first thing a user looks at and decides whether or not to visit your page. Therefore, it is important to write a crisp and accurate description of your web page.
Meta descriptions will not only help users to look at what your page covers but also help the search engines to understand and index your page accordingly. Meta descriptions are no longer a direct Google ranking factor but are vital for click-through rate (CTR), which improves the search ranking.
Similar to the title tags, you can add the meta description with the plugins like Yoast SEO; also, you can code it manually with the HTML.
How To Write Meta Descriptions For SEO
- It is recommended that you keep the meta description to 156 characters, and to optimize it for mobile, keep the limit at 130 characters.
- Use the keywords that are relevant to your webpage.
- It is also advisable to highlight your major keywords so they stand out and attract the viewers’ attention.
- Each page should have a unique meta description.
- Clearly describe what your web page contains and what your users can expect when they visit it.
- Meta descriptions should not contain any numeric characters.
Headers
On a web page, HTML headings are tags that indicate the H1, H2, H3, and other subheadings. These are important to structure your web pages. Aside from making reading easier, header tags will assist search engines in understanding the content and showcase the importance of each section.
However, header tags do not directly impact search engine rankings, but they have a major impact on the user experience.
How To Use The H tags?
An H1 tag is typically used as a heading for a page or article. The tag should be located at the top of the page and should be displayed using the largest font size possible. Ideally, the meta title tag for the page should be enclosed in the heading eg <h1>SEO Services</h1>.
Following an H1, H2 tags are used to format primary subheadings, and H3 – H6 tags to format all other subheadings. It will enable the content to be categorized into subcategories.
H2 is a meta tag that is often used interchangeably with the H1 tag. Furthermore, this H2 tag contains high-volume search terms associated with the content.
Summary
If you follow all SEO best practices, you could perhaps rank on page one of Google and attract organic traffic to your website as a reward for all your hard work.
Here are steps you should follow to evaluate your performance:
- Make sure all your pages and content have title tags and meta descriptions.
- Write high-quality content and pay attention to headings
- Make sure all your images have Alt-text.
Also, you may like to read: Why Your Business Needs SEO?
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