SEO On site: On Page Optimization starts with Title Tag and Meta Tags Optimization!

Title Tags

This is just a post on how to manage the <title>title tag</title> on each page. As most of you probably know, this is the first, and maybe the most important criteria on your page. It clearly tells Google which keywords you are targeting on each page. Although there are no standards in SEO, I will tell you some rules to follow for your Title Tag.

• You keyword must show the keywords you are targeting per page (very obvious though, but sometimes important to remind). Indeed, I have worked for a client recently who had the same title within 80% of the pages on his website. They are a big company, and a lot of business, but their SEO was just a nightmare. Each title on your website must be unique!

• The first keyword is the most important.So the first keyword or expression has to be THE ONE specific to that page.

• You title tag must be AT LEAST 65 characters. Why? Because your title tag are the keywords showing in the search result page. Google takes the first 65 characters of your title and use it as the headlines for you rankings, so we need to use ALL that space.

• Ideally, a title should be between 10 and 14 keywords and repeat your most important keyword or expression twice (not more or you could be considered as spammy. 14 keywords is a lot so use it for also targeting different variations of your keywords.

• Because the title tag appeared on Search Results, we can use it for a branding operation. Indeed, you can decide to put the name of your company in the beginning of your title, so anytime a page of your website is shown on SERP, you will be also showing the name of your company. You can do this when you start a website, however I advised to change that once there is brand awareness, and put the name of the company at the end of your title.

• On your website, your homepage should have the most generic keywords in the title tag, and deeper you are on the website, more specific the keywords should be.

Those are the 6 points for the Title Tag. If you follow those rules, that means you started your SEO criterias on page very well

Meta Tags Optimization

So now, as the title tag optimization tips is told, I decided to dedicate a few lines on meta description and meta keywords. Some people might think this is useless, because search engines do not “consider” those anymore: well I disagree with that, there are still search engines considering it (Google, Yahoo and MSN are not the only ones!), and there are other reasons I will mention later.

The Meta Keywords: In the past those were massively abused by webmasters, that’s why Google are not really considering it. However, I use the meta keywords for misspells. This is the only place where you can actually optimized your website for misspells. Indeed, this not appropriate tu use those words in a Title Tag or on your page (this would look unprofessional), that’s why meta keywords are a great place to put any misspells or variations of your keywords, as simple as visitors can’t see it.

The Meta Description: Like the meta keywords, spamming meta description with keywords was the first Black Hat SEO practice. That’s why major search engines have taken off those from the criterias of their algorythm. There might be no impact on search engine anymore, but it still have an impact in your traffic from search engine. Indeed, the meta descrition are the 2 lines showing below the Title Tag on SERP. Like the 2nd and 3rd line in your PPC ad text, the meta description (if written properly) will have a direct impact in the Click Through Rate of your page.

The standards for meta description optimization are as follow:

• The meta descrition has to contain at least 140 caracters. This is the number of caracters showing on SERP, so USE IT to sell your page. If you have less than 90 caracters, you’ll only have one line as descrition of your page in SERP.
• Use targeted keywords and expressions, as much as you can WITHOUT being spammy. Google highlights keywords in the meta description, when they match with the search query from the searcher. The more you’re ad is highlighted, better will be your click through rate.
• Use variations! Your targeted keywords must have synonyms, and meta descriptions is a great place to use them. Don’t use misspells here, as it will be showing on Google (that would look really unprofessionnal!).
• It has to be catchy! You MUST consider the meta description as an AD TEXT for your page.

That’s all for the Meta Tags. Don’t neglect them! They can make the difference sometimes, especially the meta description. You could be number 4 on SERP for a specific keyword, and get more clicks than the number 3, just because your meta description is more appealing!

Tagged as: meta descrition, meta keywords, meta tags, SEO, seo on page, serp, title tag