If you want your website and business to get more visibility online you need to work on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
One of the key factors is start optimizing your website page titles and meta descriptions (a short summary of what your page is about which appears in the search results).
High-quality titles and meta descriptions make your content more appealing, increasing user engagement and driving conversions.
Below are 8 of the best practices for optimizing page titles and meta descriptions.
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How To Start Optimizing Page Titles and Meta Descriptions For Your Website
Optimizing page titles and meta descriptions is integral to any online business strategy.
These 8 best practices will help ensure that your content is compelling enough to capture user attention and drive clicks, leading to higher conversion rates.
1. Craft a Compelling Headline
Your page title should clearly communicate what your content is about and instantly capture user attention with an interesting headline that drives clicks. Your page title should not be more than 70 characters long, so it doesn’t get cut off in search engine results pages.
2. Use Keywords Wisely
Include primary and secondary keywords in the page title to help increase relevancy – but don’t keyword stuff. Search engines penalize websites for excessive use of keywords, which may reduce your rank on SERPs.
3. Keep Titles Short
Keep page titles short and to the point – between 50-60 characters. Longer titles often get truncated in search engine results pages, making many users unable to read all of them. Ensure that anything important is included before or after the first 50-60 characters, as this part will always show up on the search engine results..
4. Write Attractive Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions should be no more than 160 characters long and give readers a clear understanding of the content on the page in an attractive way. This is your chance to show potential customers why they should click through to your website instead of the competition.
5. Add a Call-to-Action
Create urgency with a call-to-action in meta descriptions that encourages users to take action now. For example, “Don’t miss out – get 20% off now!”. This encourages customers to visit your website and purchase quickly before missing out on the offer.
6. Encourage Social Shares
Make it easier for users to share your content on social media by adding sharing buttons to the meta description. This increases website traffic and helps spread your web presence.
7. Test and Track Performance
Once you have optimized your page titles and meta descriptions, tracking their performance is essential. Monitor click-through rates, bounce rate, time on page, conversions, and more to determine which ones work best for driving user engagement.
8. Use Tools
Using a plugin like Semrush simplifies optimizing page titles and meta descriptions. This tool helps you select the best keywords, offers suggestions for improving page content, and shows you a live preview of how your title and description will appear on search engine results pages.
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If you want to implement a solid SEO strategy, you’ll be rewarded with increased visibility, higher-quality traffic, and lower costs per acquisition. However, remember that competition exists, updates are required, and implementation takes time.
Try the leading all-in-one SEO suite from Semrush (for free) and see why over 10 million marketers are achieving the SEO results they want.