Starter Guide for Search Engine Optimization
Google: Create Unique Page Title
Indicate page titles by using title tags
A title tag tells both users and search engines what the topic of a particular page is.
The <title> tag should be placed within the <head> tag of the HTML document.
Ideally, you should create a unique title for each page on your site.
<html> <head> <title>Mobile Marketing for Small Business – text messaging,
Mobile Coupons, Mobile eCard</title>
<meta name=”description=” content=”Mobile Marketing for Small Business
provides a large selection of marketing software tools to get your business
seen on Mobile devices.”>
</head>
<body>
Page Title Content, Displayed in Search Results
If your document appears in a search results page, the contents of the title tag
will usually appear in the first line of the results.
Words in the title are bolded if they appear in the user’s search query.
This can help users recognize if the page is likely to be relevant to their search.
The title for your homepage can list the name of your website/business and
could include other bits of important information like the physical location
of the business or maybe a few of its main focuses or offerings.
Accurately describe the page’s content
Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page’s content.
Avoid:
- Choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page
- Using default or vague titles like “Untitled” or “New Page 1″
Create unique title tags for each page
Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know
how the page is distinct from the others on your site.
Avoid:
- Using a single title tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages
Use brief, but descriptive titles
Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a
portion of it in the search result.
Avoid:
- Using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users
- Stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags
Make use of the “description” meta tag
A page’s description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary
of what the page is about. Whereas a page’s title may be a few words or a phrase,
a page’s description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph.
What are the merits of description meta tags?
Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for
your pages. Note that we say “might” because Google may choose to use a relevant
section of your page’s visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user’s
query. Alternatively, Google might use your site’s description in the Open Directory
Project if your site is listed there.
Adding description meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case
Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet.
Accurately summarize the page’s content
Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your
description meta tag as a snippet in a search result.
Avoid:
- Writing a description meta tag that has no relation to the content on the page
- Using generic descriptions like “This is a web page” or “Page about baseball cards”
- filling the description with only keywords
- copying and pasting the entire content of the document into the description meta tag
Use unique descriptions for each page
Having a different description meta tag for each page helps both users and Google,
especially in searches where users may bring up multiple pages on your domain.
If your site has thousands or even millions of pages, hand-crafting description
meta tags probably isn’t feasible. In this case, you could automatically generate
description meta tags based on each page’s content.
Avoid:
- Using a single description meta tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages
