Here we go, another new guest author, Nittin Aggarwal!
Undoubtedly title and description tags or Meta as they are called, are two most important aspects of search engine optimization. The title tag is used for ranking by Google and other search engines, while description tag is not. Since most of the searches use Google we will stick to this search engine in this post.
Title tag
The Title tag is the one you see on top of a web browser when you open a web page. This tells the user what to expect inside the web page. But more importantly, title tag is what you see in the first line of search result. It is used by Google for ranking purposes by extracting keywords from it. It is, therefore, important to create not only effective titles but also insert appropriate keywords in it. SEO specialists have ascertained through research that keeping keywords at the beginning of the title has maximum effect.
You must ensure that each page on your website has a unique title and the keywords are appropriate to that page. Often I see that webmasters tend to ignore title tags and concentrate on web content. I would say that this laziness is unacceptable. You must spend a considerable amount of time creating unique titles for every one of your web pages. You will see for yourself how your website jumps in ranking.
You must make sure that the title is no longer than 66 characters including spaces. Google will chop off the words which go beyond this limit.
Description tag
I truly lament the disappearance of well crafted, expressive description tags which tell users what to expect inside the web page. Truth be told, description tag can make or break your website. Every search result displays description of the web page and usually people tend to click on sites which tell them what to expect. I come across descriptions which say almost nothing about the content or are simply too generic. You must understand that though the description tag does not contribute to your Google ranking (the reason why most SEO guys tend to ignore this tag), it is equally important in deciding weather your search listing will be clicked on by the user or not. You as the webmaster should remember that first page ranking by itself does not ensure great traffic to your site. Great title and description tags, together, contribute to your success. I for one will click on a link which tells me what lies inside. At least in this case, nobody likes surprises.
Title and description tags have different purposes. Title tag is extremely important for Search engine ranking. Here you must include keywords preferably at the very beginning. Description tag is not for ranking but is important to tell visitors about the web page they are about to visit. Both title and description tag have an important role to play in bringing traffic to a site and thus neither should be taken lightly.
Nitin Aggarwal is the founder of Offshore Ally, a company offering the best of virtual assistant and link building services. He is passionate about blogging and loves everything technology. Connect with him via Twitter.
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Very clear explanation of these two tags and their importance. Is there a limit on the length of the description tag?
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The description should be around 150-200 characters
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As far as i know that there is no limit about description tag but up to 160 characters are displayed.
You are right, there is no limit, however its better to confine them to the limits of 160 character for description and 66 characters for the title.
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Good point about unique title tags. Also agree about desc needed to help actual convert an impression to a click. That’s always the seo struggle between keywords and conversion.
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There’s always a balance that SEOers have to pay attention to, right?
Agree, Google is using the url+title+description to fill the SNIPPET we see in SERP. Though description may not appear if title is long…it must be taken care of to improve your CTR…
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You are so true that tag title is the most important thing for on-page SEO. Google really looks into the title tag to decide which one match as the search result.
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i probable it All about title and description tags | discharge Blog heal now im your rss reader
A very helpful post. I think a lot of people underestimate how important the description tag is, mainly because the ‘Google doesn’t use meta tags’ concept got a bit lost in translation.
Many have begun doubting the title’s and description’s role since the concept of ‘content is what matters’ has emerged, which is true, but the title has a very great importance in search engines.
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Onpage is the bone of the seo and it’s very important for optimizing a site.title and meta tag are are display in google SERP.
onpage optimization is the most important part of a site. It is all that says about your site and helps to find your site on search engine.
Yes, i am agree with you. Title tags are the single most important factor which determines a site’s ranking on the search engines. When calculating your web page’s relevance to a search, most search engines consider the content of the title tag as one of the parameters and display that content in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Proper title tags increase your website’s position in the SERP and encourage a visitor to click on your link. The words placed in this Meta Tag, are often used in the search engines result pages (SERPs), just below the Title Tag as a brief description of your page. In the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), after reading the Title, a visitor usually studies the description of the page and decides whether they want to visit your site or not.
We can also using keyword tag because Google don’t used it anymore but there are some search engine still using it for ranking as well.
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Yes we need to give primary keywords in the beginning of the page title and then we can add other keywords. H1 tag is also important for every web page. Give your important keyword in h1 tag, and also we need to pad our keywords in the content of that page.
Title and description should more focus for user not for seo purpose. Title and description should have primary and secondary keyword. Keyword stuffing shouldn’t be in title and description
Yes, it works just fine as a part of my
Good SEO purpose related title is 70 characters and description is 170 characters included space.
Thank you for offering
Selection of the proper description is very important to our blog for search engines first analyze our blog via the blog description
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these tips are great. I will now go look into my site and make sure all the title tags follow your instructions. Same thing with the description tags.
Thanks for the advice, hopefully it helps!
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Excellent idea, now I’m not alone in my arguments and can even refer to someone))
I think, that title and description should more focus for user not for seo purpose.