SEO and PPC results, largely. But, according to an article published by Matt Cutts in 2009, Google does not use Meta tags for their SEO ranking anymore. So why worry about Meta tags then? However, even though they are not used by search algorithms, Meta tags (Meta titles and Meta descriptions) do help human visitors greatly during searching. In fact, they affect click-through rates.

Read: Beginner Guide for Keyword research

What is Meta Title?

Meta titles are the HTML tags that depict the title of a website. This tag appears as the blue colored heading at a search engine results page (SERP), at the tab of your web browser or during sharing of the website on social media.

“According to Moz “Title tags are a major factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about, and they are the first impression many people have of your page. Title tags are used in three key places: (1) search engine results pages (SERPs), (2) web browsers, and (3) social networks.”

You can write a Meta title as,

Characters Limit of the Meta Title

There are character limits for making the Meta title. It is considered between 30 to 60 characters. But there is a contradiction that Google considered character limits or pixel length.

Google search engine considered both. Therefore if you are choosing the character limits, it should be in 30 to 60 characters. And in Pixels, It should be in 482 pixels.

Note: Keep your Meta titles characters limits in 30 to 60 characters and in 482 pixels.

If you optimize the Meta titles tags over the above Meta titles limits, then search engine will truncate the other characters like this 

Optimal Format to Write Meta Titles

The optimal format to write the Meta titles is

Primary Keywords | Secondary Keywords | Brand Name

Example:  SEO Company New York | SEO Services | Learn IM Tactics

In this example, SEO Company New York is Primary Keywords, SEO services are secondary keyword and Learn IM Tactics is the Brand name.

Tips to Write Well Optimized Meta Titles Tags?

I have been on a research and found out the headline formula – a perfect way of writing Meta titles.

1. The title must comprise of 6 -10 words. (You can use more but keep it less than 60 characters and 482 pixels)
2. Insert your most important keyword in the Meta Title.
3. Use appropriate adjectives that well define your keyword.
4. Don’t over optimize SEO keywords in Meta Title
5. Write unique titles for each page
6. Write Meta titles for your customers

What is Meta Description?

Meta Description is the descriptions that appear on a SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGES (SERP). It is a short summary of the content found on the web page. The meta description tells users what you are offering. It will help you to boost the Click Through Rate (CTR).

You can see them as the short text snippet right below the blue colored title link.

The Characters Limit of the Meta Description

Before the character limits of Meta description was 155 to 157 characters, But now Google has updated the Meta Description character limit to 320 characters.

Over 320 characters limits, the Meta description truncates by the search engine. Similar to this

How Do I Write a Captivating Meta Description?

1. Make your description limited to 320 characters.
2. Use your keywords wisely. Don’t stuff. Consider the Meta description as your free ad-page of your site.
3. Try to add product reviews and ratings that were done by well-known people/sites/bloggers.
e.g. ” NYC’s favorite food blogger, ABC’s 5 stars rated Pizza shops, located in the buzz of NYC…”
4. Write unique Meta descriptions for each page on your site.
5. Don’t forget to include a call to action within your Meta description. It will give your users a clear instruction of what action to take.

Meta Title, Meta Description, SEO, PPC – The Relation.

SEO, Search Engine Optimization is the discipline on non-payment marketing for online web search results. PPC, Pay-per-Click, on the other hand, is the payment marketing strategy.

It is quite obvious, Meta tags role in SEO. More your Meta tags are clear and precise, you will get more clicks. More clicks mean you have more website traffic for your site. Direct website traffic is one of the SEO factors that is used by Google’s search algorithms.

But how do Meta tags impact on PPC? PPC is showing my advertisements on top of SERP and I pay according to the number of user clicks. Seems, there is no use of Meta titles or descriptions? But what about Meta tags on landing pages? Carefully written Meta titles and Meta descriptions on your landing page will result in more user clicks. The visitor will get a clear idea of the content of your landing page.

For e.g. I am going to create a landing page on my company’s vacancies and use the PPC method. If I had none / poor Meta title or Meta description, how will I drive in more user traffic/ clicks to my page. But, if proper Meta tags were used, visitors get a quick understanding on my page’s content. Those who are in urgent of employment will click through quickly.

Finally, you can see even though giant search engine’s like Google does not use Meta tags anymore for their SEO rankings, still Meta titles and Meta descriptions do an impact. Their capability is never outdated.

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