The title tag determines the name of a web page as it appears in Google. The content of the title tag plays an important part in the ranking a page gets in Google and Bing.

2. What is a description tag?

The description tag is a text of maximum 155 characters long that says what a page is about. Because Google often shows the description tag, it’s a great tool to persuade people to visit your page.

In our article ‘what is a description tag and why is it so important’ you can read in detail what Google does with the description tag and when it is and isn’t shown.

3. Title and description tag create the first impression

When making a website, a lot of attention always goes to the look & feel of the website in general and to the homepage in particular. While this is certainly very important, it’s not true that you need to do this in order to ‘make a good first impression’.

For more than half of your visitors, their first contact with you is not your homepage. Or any other page of your website, for that matter. The first contact, the first impression, is made by the title and description tag shown in Google.

4. How can you find out what your title and description tags are?

There are lots of seo-programmes that can do this for you. But there’s also Google. Just type in ’site:’ followed by your domain name and you’ll get the complete list of the title and description tags of all your pages.

On the international website of Citroën, there’s room for improvement. The title tags are clearly not specific enough. For the description tag, they seem to have written some fluffy marketing nonsense and used that for most pages.

5. Tips for the perfect title tag

If you read our article 8 tips for the perfect title tag you should be well on your way to writing great title tags.

While you’re at it, have a look at our 4 examples of clumsy title tags too. Just so you know what not to do.

6. Tips for the perfect description tag

The description tag does not influence your ranking in Google. But it is essential to get people to click on your page, as this interesting user behaviour study on search engine results pages shows.

These 12 tips for the perfect description tag will help you write great description tags that will get more visitors to your pages.

7. How to track down doubles in your title or description tags?

Google doesn’t like title tags or description tags that are the same for more than one page of your website. It’s clear why: Google uses the title and description tags to find out whether or not a page has unique content.

The first thing you need to do is make sure every page of your website has a unique title and description tag.

The Google Webmaster Tools can help you track down doubles in your title or description tags.

Log in to Google Webmaster Tools and select your website (or add your website if you haven’t done that yet). Go to the left menu, click on ‘Diagnostics’ and then on ‘HTML suggestions’.

The report on this page gives you access to double tags and it also shows you the title and description tags that are too long or too short.

Do you know of any other best practices, tools or studies on the importance of the title or description tag? Please share them in the comments.

But how do you write a good description tag? These 12 tips should point you in the right direction.

1. Use no more than 155 characters

Google shows only the first 160 characters of the description tag. After that, it simply adds an ellipsis (…). If you want to play it safe, don’t use more than 155 characters. Don’t forget: spaces and punctuation marks count as characters too.

2. Use keywords you want to score with for that page

Google only shows the description tag if there’s a sufficiently strong content relation between the description tag, the user’s query and the content of the page.

If you want Google to show your description tag, be sure to include the page’s keyword(s) in it.

3. Don’t create false expectations

Everybody likes to have loads of visitors. But it’s actually more important to get the right visitors.

Luring people to your website with vague promises or inaccurate description tags will work against you in the long run. Sure, you might get more people to click on your result in Google. But if you can’t deliver on your promise, they’ll be gone in a hurry. And they won’t come back.

4. Tell the user what to expect

The description tag needs to tell the user what the page is about. It should be a concise summary of your page.

5. Think about your target audience

Hopefully, every page on your website has a purpose. Some pages can be informative, others might be pages where you want to sell a particular product. Think about the goal of your page and the kind of people you want to attract. Make sure the description tag reflects that.

With our article ‘Information architecture: the basics’ we want to reach people who don’t know a lot about information architecture.

Our product page ‘Information architecture’ wants to attract people who are ready to make use of our services to improve their website’s information structure.

6. Write properly

Reading your description tag should be a pleasure, not a chore. So don’t just pile up the keywords but give people a proper indication of what the page is about.

You don’t necessarily have to write full sentences but do make sure it’s easy to read.

7. To the point

You’ve only got 155 characters. That means there’s no time for beating about the bush. Make your point in those 155 characters.

8. Don’t just repeat the page title

The description tag gives you 155 extra characters to explain what a page is about and to get people to click on your result in Google. Don’t just repeat the title tag, use those 155 characters to give extra information. (Read our 8 tips for the perfect title tag)

9. Being commercial won’t hurt you

There’s no shame in being commercial. If you know there’s one thing that makes your page stand out from the competition’s, say so.

You offer a best-price guarantee? Say so. Better yet: include the product’s price in the description tag.

Or include your phone number: “Order your tickets online or call 03 333 33 33”. Convenient for people who don’t have time or who are surfing on their mobile and need info fast.

If you offer a free online quote for a particular service, that’s a great way to end your description tag: “Get a free quote online”.

10. Unique for every page

Create a unique description tag for every page. Great for Google and for your visitors.

11. Use the right language

Make sure the description tag is in the same language as the page. Seems ridiculous to even mention but on multi-language sites you often see the description tags are all in one language.

12. What about the description tag of a language choice page?

That’s a hard one. Don’t write ‘Choose your language’ or ‘Language choice’. That says absolutely nothing.

Instead, say what your company does in your site’s main languages.

More tips?

Feel free to add more tips of your own in the comments.

The description tag is a piece of html code that’s meant to give a short – you guessed it – description of a web page. The description tag is at the top of the page in the <HEAD>section of the code.

In code, a description tag looks like this:

<meta name="description" content="Short, riveting description of your web page." />

Not visible on your web page

The description tag of a web page is not visible on the page itself. That’s why a lot of companies don’t pay it much attention.

Google shows the description tag

Google likes the description tag. If a web page has a description tag, Google shows it, provided these 2 conditions are met:

• Semantic similarity between the description tag and the content of the web page
• Significant similarity between the user’s search query and the content of the description tag

Example 1

I looked for ‘title tag’. Google shows the page’s description tag because it contains my query ‘title tag’.

Example 2

I looked for ‘page title’. Because the description tag does not contain my query, Google doesn’t show it. Instead, Google shows a sentence fragment on the page that does contain the query.

What does Google do if you don’t have a description tag?

If a page doesn’t have a description tag, Google usually shows sentence fragments on the page that contain the user’s query.

If your website is in the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) and your homepage doesn’t have a description tag, there’s quite a big chance that Google will use the description of your website in the DMOZ.

Example

Cortex abc is in the Open Directory Project. This description was made by someone at Open Directory Project.

Because the homepage of Cortex abc doesn’t have a description tag, Google uses the description of the Open Directory Project database.

And apparently that description was written quite a while ago. If you visit Cortex abc’s website today, you can see it doesn’t really fit the description anymore.

Does the description tag affect my ranking in Google?

No, it doesn’t. Google ignores the description tag’s content when it comes to ranking. The description tag will not help you to score better in Google.

Does the description tag matter, if Google doesn’t use it for its ranking?

Yes, it absolutely does. Which result people click on in Google is affected by the result’s title and the extra bit of information that appears underneath the title.

Thanks to our 8 tips for the perfect title tag you should have the title pretty much covered.

The ‘extra bit of information’ that Google shows about a page can be the description tag. Good copywriting can convince people to click on your page rather than your competitor’s, even though he is maybe ranked one or two spots higher than you are.

How do you write a good description tag?

Good question. Let me get back to you on that one.

Which provides us with a good excuse to also show you some examples of what not to do.

1. The root of all evil

2. Must remember to enter title tag. Very important!

3. Final countdown? Final homapge!

4. Friendly, but not really saying much

As you can see, our 8 tips for the perfect title tag could be useful for some people.

Have you seen a title tag that made you laugh? Or cry?

Share it in the comments or email me.

The title tag determines the name of a web page. Title tags are mostly visible in Google and in the browser.

Google
The page title Google shows is a page’s title tag. The same goes for Bing.

Browser
The title tag appears in the browser title bar and the browser tabs. When you add a page to your favorites or when you share a page via social media, the title tag is what apppears as the page title.

Is the title tag important?

You bet it is. The title tag is one of the most important things to get right if you want to do well in Google. It’s not the only thing but if you neglect your title tags you’re making it very hard on yourself.

Tips for a good title tag

1. Use no more than 66 characters

• Search engines only show a limited number of characters of the title tag. Google shows the first 66 characters. After that, it simply adds an ellipsis (…). If you want your title tags to look professional, don’t use more than 66 characters.
• Short titles are easier to read than long ones.
• The less words there are in your title tag, the more value Google attributes to each word. As a consequence, it’s easier for a keyword to score well in a title tag of 4 words than it is in a title tag of 8 words. This is called keyword density.

2. Make sure your title tag accurately describes your page

• The title tag should contain the keyword you want to score with for that page.
• Make sure you use that keyword somewhere on the page itself.
• Use a keyword your visitors use. It’s nice to do well in Google but if it’s with a word nobody uses it’s not really going to do you any good.

3. Think about what you want the page to do

• Make sure the title tag and content of the page correspond with the reasons people visit that page.
  ‘Netbooks: reviews of the fastest models’ will appeal to a different audience and create different expectations than ‘Cheap netbooks’.

4. Put the keyword first

• Google reportedly attributes more value to the first word in a title tag than the last one.
• Jakob Nielsen’s research shows that the first 11 characters determine whether someone continues to read on or not.

5. Don’t forget to mention your brand name

• Putting your brand name in the title tag isn’t all that important if you’re a small company. But if you’re one of the leading players in your field, it’s a good idea to mention your brand name in your title tags.
• Wa advise most companies to put their brand name last. Only on your homepage should your brand name be first.
• If you’re an absolute top brand that the majority of people knows and trusts, it can be interesting to start your title tags with your brand name.

6. Separate your brand name from the page title

• Use a vertical dash (|) or hyphen (-) to separate your brand name from the actual page title.

7. Write attractive title tags

• If you stuff the title tag full of keywords, you’ll probably score well in Google. But it will make your title tag unattractive and people won’t click on it. So you’re kind of missing the point.
• For a lot of people, the title tag is their first introduction to your brand. Make sure you make a good first impression.
• Your web page’s title tag appears in a list with other search results. Make sure it stands out.

8. Unique for every page

• Each page of your web site should have a unique title tag. If you can’t decide what a page is really about, how is Google supposed to know?

How can you adapt your title tags?

That depends on your website. Hopefully, you’re using a content management system (CMS) that lets you adapt the title tag of every page manually.

If you’re choosing a new CMS, make sure it allows you to do that. If you want to do well in Google, it’s vital.

More tips?

Do you have some more tips for good title tags? Feel free to add them in the comments section.

Biggest trap: the ad’s clickthrough rate

In our Dutch seminar ’How to score in Google’ participants often proudly announce click through rates of 15, 20 even 25% on some of their AdWords. Our follow-up question ”And how many of those people effectively did what you wanted them to on your website?” is usually met with an embarassed silence.

It’s strange how many people focus only on the ‘CTR’ (= clickthrough rate) column in Google AdWords. That seems to be most marketing people’s only goal: to get as many people on the website as possible.

Google Adwords cleverly exploits that focus on clickthrough rate by giving users the option to display the ads with a higher CTR more often: “Optimise: Display better performing ads more often.”

Focusing solely on CTR makes sense for Google. Each click earns Google money.

Focusing solely on CTR doesn’t make sense for you. Each click costs you money.

Example: CTR of 20%

What good is an ad with a CTR of 20% if only 2% of all those clickthroughs results in a sale? Imagine the cost per click is 1 euro and the profit per sold article is 50 euros.

Let’s do the math:

• 1.000 people see the ad.
• 200 people click on it and visit your website. Cost: 200 euros.
• Of those 200 people, 4 people buy something. Profit: 200 euros.
• End result: 4 purchases on 1.000 views. Net profit: 0 euro.

Example: CTR of 5%

Can an ad with a CTR of 5% be more successful than an with a CTR of 20%? Absolutely. Imagine the cost per click is still 1 euro but instead of 2% of people buying something on your site there’s 10% of people buying.

Let’s do the math:

• 1.000 people see the ad.
• 50 people click on it and visit your website. Cost: 50 euros.
• Of those 50 people, 5 people buy something. Profit: 250 euros.
• End result: 5 purchases on 1.000 views. Net profit: 200 euros.

The message: look at the whole picture

Of course an ad’s CTR is important. But you have to look at the whole picture.

• Number of times the ad is shown
• CTR of ad
• Number of people who accomplish the ad’s goal on your website

I took a commercial website as an example because the numbers are very clear there. But even if you’re not selling things on your site, you should do this conversion exercise. After all, those ads are there to achieve something, right? What is that exactly? Put your website’s goals on paper and figure out how to match them to your ads.

Realistic?

Oh yeah. The example I gave above is very realistic. As a matter of fact, it’s based on the sales of the Dutch ‘Writing for the web’ tips we sell on our website. The ads that included the words ’40 writing tips for the web’ had very high click through ratios (up to 25%). But we hardly sold anything to those people who clicked through (less than 2%).

The ad in which we mentioned the price of the tips were less popular (less than 3% CTR). But on closer inspection we saw that we sold the tips to nearly 1 out of 3 people (31%) of the people who clicked on that ad. As soon as we saw that, we deleted all the ads that didn’t mention the price.

Conclusion

Be specific in your ad. Don’t hide things. Don’t gloss things over. The clickthrough rate may be a bit lower but your net profit will be higher. And less people will feel disillusioned after clicking through to your website.

How to start?

• Activate the option ‘Conversion tracking’ in Google AdWords (under ‘Tools’).
• Connect AdWords to the software you use to analyse visitor behaviour on your site (Google Analytics, Webtrends, Nedstat, …).
• Analyze the data yourself or get a webmetrics expert to do it for you.

And yet, websites and blogs are still littered with “Click here” and “Read more” links. Here’s a little reminder, and a few examples, why meaningful links are so important.

1. Why meaningful links?

• Links stand out
  Because links are underlined and a different colour, they stand out. They’re like little anchors for the eye. If our brain registers things like “Click here” and “Read more“, that’s not very helpful. Links like “Usability workshop” or “One-day user test” are far more useful. Surfers know what to expect when they click these links.  
• Google likes meaningful links
  When indexing pages Google not only takes into account the words on the page itself but also the words in the links to that page. A link to a “Usability workshop” helps that page score better for the words “usability” and “workshop”.
• Visually impaired users
  Visually impaired users also scan web pages. Not with their eyes but by jumping from link to link with special software. The links appear on the braille reader or are read out. No prizes for guessing which sort of links they prefer.

2. Tips

• Avoid links that only say “Click here”, “Read more” or similar things.
• Make sure a link says something about the page it refers to.
• Titles of articles on home- and overview pages should be clickable. That way, you don’t even need a “Read more” link at the end.  
• Put the most important words first, to play into surfers’ scanning behaviour.

3. Examples

Better: “Find an Invisalign doctor near you.”

Better: Leave out the “More” link and simply make the title clickable.