SEO's Third Pillar: Meta Data

Connie Parsons in Web Marketing, SEO, Web Design

SEO Graphic

Previously we covered the important role content and inbound links play in search engine optimization. Now, let's look at the third pillar of effective SEO: adding appropriate meta data to your website's pages.

Meta data consists of a title tag and a description tag.  You see meta data every day, but may not realize it.  Meta data is returned by the search engines in the search results on a page.

The top line, in blue, is the title tag.  At the bottom is the description tag.  This is the information that search engines store in their databases so that they can return search results more quickly.

Search results screen shot

You generally only see your home page results in search, but your entire website should be optimized with page titles, and many pages should also have description data.  The description data is more strongly related to conversions (encouraging the searcher to click on your website) than page rank.

To see if your web pages have meta data:

1.    Go to the web page
2.    Right click
3.    Choose “view page source”
4.    Use “control f” and search for “title” and then “description”

If there is meta data, you will find code similar to the following on the page:

Nursing Home | Rehabilitation | Landmark of Baton Rouge | Baton Rouge, Louisiana


Here are a few rules of thumb to follow in creating meta data:

  • Optimize each page on your site for a different, specific, keyword or phrase.
  • Do not have the pages compete with one another (do not optimize two pages for the same term).  Each page should have a different title and description tag.
  • Title tags should be a maximum of 70 characters. Target keywords should appear at the front of the tag.
  • Description tags should be a maximum of 150 characters. (These limits are related to the number of characters search engines will store in their database.)
  • Content on the page must support your meta data!

Here is a simple, three-part template to use in organizing appropriate meta data for your website's pages:

  1. Name of this page of the website
  2. Add the page's title (maximum of 70 characters)
  3. Add the page's description (maximum of 150 characters)

If you would like more information about optimizing your website for optimum search engine recognition, please contact us.  And to access the two prior articles in this series, go to: Content Moves Your Website Up the Search Engine Ladder and The Power of Inbound Links.