Transcript
Hi, guys, and welcome to another edition of Zupo's SEO Talk & Tea.
Today's conversation is how to optimize your title tags and meta descriptions. In a prior video, we had discussed what SEO tags are, and essentially SEO tags is your title tags and meta descriptions. So, I want to take some time to talk about how to optimize those title tags and meta descriptions, instead of just defining them.
So, before we jump on in, this is Zupo's SEO Talk & Tea, so we have the Magic Dragon tea. I want to do a continuous video, in the sense that we had this tea when I defined the SEO tags, so I'd like to have it for this one, as well. So, let's go ahead and get brewing.
It's a... Oh, by the way, before I jump in, it is a fruit infusion kind of tea. So, it's not actually a tea, so it's considered a tisane, meaning that it's not a tea leaf. It's actually a non-caffeinated tisane, meaning that it's brewed like tea, but it's not a tea leaf. And so, this one is dragon fruit, apple, rose hip, hibiscus, and blackberry leaves. And it sounds just as sweet as it sounds. So, I generally like to have this tea when it's a pretty hot day, because it's not really a tea, but sometimes you want something a little bit jucier. And I get the sense that this is probably way less sweet, in terms of the amount of sugar it has, compared to, like, a juice. And so, I just [inaudible 00:01:16] to perceive that it's healthier, but I have no idea. Hopefully it is.
But anyways, let's jump on into title tags and meta descriptions, and how to optimize for them. So, for title tags and meta descriptions, it is very classic SEO-focused, where you are really optimizing for keywords. So, in that sense, let's focus on title tags first, because they have the highest priority when it comes to priority of power for title tags and meta descriptions. Priority of importance, might be a better way to say that.
So, when it comes to title tags, you have a limited amount of characters. It fluctuates every so often, but generally it's around 55 to 70 characters in a title tag that you can have. So, it's not that long. And so, what you want to do in a title tag is, studies show that the closer to the front of the sentence you have a keyword, the better your title tag is optimized for, and the better pages will rank. So, like I said, with classic SEO, it's very keyword heavy. And so, what the best thing you can do for your title tags is when you're optimizing for them, make sure you assign the keyword that is the most important to the page that you're trying to write a title tag for. And when you're writing the title tag, do your best to write the keyword as close to the front as possible. That way it'll give your page and title tag a better opportunity to rank. Because Google, when they read it, they see the keywords closer to the front, they have more confidence that that's what your page is trying to rank for.
On a second note, the other thing that you want to take into consideration when you're writing title tags is, it's a two pronged approach. There is a layer where you're trying to optimize your title tag for Google's purposes, but the second thing is, you want to make sure that it's optimized for clickthrough rate. So, we've all seen Google search results where the title tag is really spammily written, it's almost written like by a robot. And so, you have to also factor in, yes, you can rank, but you want to make sure people click the search result itself. So, you want to make sure that you balance a strong title tag with a keyword in it, but also a strong title tag in the sense that you are optimizing for that someone would want that click the title tag.
Now, when I work with clients, I tier it much more, though. We need to get on the first page before we start caring about people clicking. Because I've had interim discussions where people have wanted the click, the title tag needs to be read well, so people will want to click it. But my argument usually is, if it's not even on the first page, no one's going to find it, and who cares about clicking it, if no one's going to see it anyways? So, generally how I tier my importance, so I go first, keyword to the front, optimize for SEO purposes, and try to have different variations of it. And then second, still trying to make it readable in a sense that people would want to click it, so that you're balancing both. So, at the very core, title tags, just have the keywords close to the front as possible, but make sure it's not too spammy.
Second is meta descriptions. So, meta description's longer. I believe it's about 160 characters you can fit. I think it fluctuates as well, but generally what I see is about 160 characters you can fit in the description. In the meta description, just as like the title tag, you want to try and put the keyword as close to the front as possible, but it's not as important as it is for the title tag. In my other video, I mentioned that meta descriptions, studies have shown that meta descriptions, one, are not as heavily weighed as title tags, if... and when I say not as heavily, there's like an orders of magnitude difference. Where meta descriptions are... some people argue, are not even considered by Google as a ranking factor. So, meta descriptions are more seen as a clickthrough rate, and also a supplement to title tags, that they just enhance the title tag.
So, my advice when it comes to meta descriptions is, have the keyword as close to the front as possible. But it's not as important, you can always have it somewhere else. But just make sure you have the keyword somewhere in the meta description, because oftentimes what Google will do is when they show it, if you have the keyword in the title tag and meta description, sometimes they'll bold it, or kind of highlight it, in a sense, just a little bit, so you can see it. And users like to see title tags and meta descriptions, the same word in both, so they can have more confidence that that's what they're clicking for. So, in a meta description, I like to make meta descriptions much more conversational. The title tag is much more optimized for SEO, and meta description, I optimize much more for the clickthrough rate.
So, that's kind of the balance. It's... Of course, still use the keyword in both the title tag and the meta description, but when you're tiering your efforts, the title tag probably should focus much more on the keyword itself and having that as close to the front. Meta description, if you can accomplish it on both, great, but usually for meta-description, I also do a much of heavier balance of clickthrough rate and trying to make sure it reads like an actual human being that someone would want to click. So, it's kind of that balancing act.
So, I don't want to dive in too deep. There's a lot of title tag and meta description articles out there. You can kind of read them extensively. Sometimes I think people overcomplicate them, but I think in a quick overview summary, title tags, keyword near the front, and if you want put variations, do so. Meta description, similar, but not as imperative, and also your meta description is a great place to start adding more conversational tone and optimizing for clickthrough rate, as opposed to SEO.
So, that's kind of where I want to leave it. If you guys found the video valuable, please Like, and subscribe. I hope it helps you in your title tag and meta description writing. I would... There's a lot of great articles out there that I would encourage you, if you want to know a little bit more, go read those. But I hope to see you guys again soon. I'm going to go ahead and pour my tea out, enjoy my tea. So, I hope to see you guys again in future videos. Thanks, guys.