Writing Impactful Meta Titles And Meta Descriptions

Every listing has a title and description on search engines (like Google, Yahoo, and Bing). Those titles and descriptions help searchers find the online information they want. In other words, a webpage’s title and description are the first impressions a user gets about the content on your website. So, it stands to reason that optimizing your titles and descriptions helps drive more organic traffic to your site. But how do you do that? All you have to do is write impactful meta titles and meta descriptions. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, let’s get started!

First, The Basics Of Meta Titles And Descriptions

As we stated just a moment ago, meta titles and meta descriptions are what search engines use to tell users what content to expect on your various web pages. Combined and optimized appropriately, they give searchers a great first impression of your business and help drive traffic to your site. But unfortunately, they can spell disaster for otherwise well-optimized web content when improperly utilized. For example, take a look at this result for “plumbing company” from Google:

Good example of meta title and description

For contrast’s sake, here’s an example of a poorly optimized meta title and description from the exact search:

bad example of a meta title and description

How To Write Impactful Meta Titles

Writing robust, engaging, and impactful meta titles is similar to yet very different from writing titles for other works. While engaging the searcher with a hook is essential, the meta title isn’t always the place for that (unless it’s for a blog post, but more on that later). So instead, make your meta titles short (between 50 and 7o characters long), sweet, and to the point. Also, ensure your titles include the essential keyword in your content. For example, let’s say you’re writing a title for your most recent county plumbing page and optimizing your content for the keyword “county plumbers.” For a page like that, a good meta title would look like this: County Plumbers | Professional County Plumbing Services The above title starts with the primary keyword and then repeats the keyword in a different form after the pipe. A title like this aims to draw a searcher straight to the page. A service or landing page title doesn’t provide the search user with any additional information. That’s what the description is for (but more on that).

Writing Meta Titles For Blog Posts And Casual Content

However, if you’re writing a meta title for more casual, blog-style content, you can get a little more creative with your tags. For example, we optimized this post for the long-tail keyword “writing meta titles and meta descriptions,” and our title looks like this: Writing Impactful Meta Titles And Meta Descriptions – SEO Essentials Do you see how the above title is on the longer side and doesn’t focus primarily on keyword optimization? That’s because it’s a title for a blog post, and we wrote it intending to pull curious readers in. After all, blog posts aren’t necessarily, used to funnel users toward sales. Blogs often work better when written as user-friendly, engaging content. They’re supposed to keep readers entertained while providing the necessary information. So, their titles should reflect that more-casual mentality and styling.

How To Write Impactful Meta Descriptions

Before we talk about writing an impactful meta description, we should get some technical details out of the way. Meta descriptions appear below the title and briefly describe the content they’re attached to. They also must be between 140 and 165 characters extended. Otherwise, search engines may truncate your report, which doesn’t help funnel search users to your site. Okay, with the technical stuff out of the way, let’s write impactful meta descriptions for your pages and posts.

Writing Meta Descriptions For Service And Landing Pages

As with meta titles, your strategy for writing impactful meta descriptions varies depending on the type of content you’re writing them for. For example, if you’re writing a report for a sales funnel or service page, you must ensure it’s well-optimized for SEO while briefly describing the content they’ll find on the page. It’s also good to brag a little here and to make sure you add a solid call to action (like a contact prompt and phone number). Here’s an example of a well-written meta description for the fictional “County Plumbing” page we wrote a title for above:

County plumbing services from the plumbers at *Company Name* are always fast, reliable and affordable. Contact *Company Name* at 555-555-5555 to learn more today!

Writing Meta Descriptions For Blog Posts And More-Casual Content

In contrast, if you’re writing a meta description for a blog post or other reader-focused piece of content, you want to describe what readers should expect to see in the full post. In other words, a short, paraphrased excerpt from the introduction of your post often does quite well. For example, here’s the meta description we used for the position you’re reading right now:

Writing impactful meta titles and meta descriptions is essential for quality SEO. Read more to learn how to do so from Contractor Advertising today!

As you can see, the description above is much more on-topic. It attempts to persuade the searcher to click the link and continue reading. Contrast that with how we wrote the description for the service page. Do you see how they’re similar yet different call to action? In the description for the service page, we wanted to get the reader to call the company immediately (or shortly after clicking through to the page). However, when we wrote the description for this blog post, we tried to convince the searcher to click through to read more. Both descriptions will help generate clicks, but the end goal for the targeted searcher is entirely different.

Need Help Writing Meta Titles And Meta Descriptions? Contact Us!

Okay, that was tons of information on two seemingly small parts of your web content. However, writing impactful meta titles and descriptions is one of the most vital elements of high-quality SEO. If you’d like help writing impactful, eye-catching, and engaging titles and descriptions for your pages and posts, or if you’d like help with any other area of SEO, then feel free to contact us here at Contractor Advertising. We’d be more than happy to optimize your meta titles and descriptions.