OK so let’s get back to basics today. We wanted to revisit that old stalwart of SEO………..Title tags and Meta tags.

Back in the day Meta tags were THE way to get your site rankings. Then after a lot of bad press and the fact that their importance in ranking formulas was diminished many people have started to ignore them.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!

Meta tags ARE still really important. They may not directly effect a page’s chances of rankings BUT they do still have a pretty big impact indirectly.

This is because many of the major search engines use the copy within the Meta Description tag as the text for the listing a page is given within their results.

By having a good sales orientated sentence related to the product, service, information on the page that contains words similar to those the searcher has used, the Description can have a dramatic effect on the number of people who click on that listing and visit the site.

A number 5 listing with a good relevant Description could achieve a high proportion of clicks than a number 3 listing with a bad Description.

The Title tag is often grouped together with Meta tags and ignoring this Tag could have a dramatic effect. Many state that the Title tag is THE most important place on a page to have your key search terms.

It doesn’t take long to write Title Tags and Meta tags and they can have such a positive impact that it doesn’t make sense that so many people are still ignoring them and concentrating on other areas of optimisation.

So here is a quick guide to writing a set of Tags for your web pages:

Title Tag
The Title Tag should contain relevant keywords, but not repeats and be no longer than 80 characters. It should also be as readable as possible and succinctly describe the web page.

Example if this page were a web page:

“Title Tags, Meta Keywords, and Descriptions – Leapfrogg Guidelines”

Description Tag
The Description tag is precisely what is says and should describe the content of the web page. It must not contain more than 150 characters (approx 25 words) and must include relevant keywords and phrases. Make it engaging and try to include a call to action to persuade people to click through to your site.

Example for this page:
“Visit Leapfrogg today to learn the basic guidelines for writing great title tags, meta keywords and descriptions for your web pages.”

Keywords Tag
Quite simply, the keyword tag should include all relevant keywords and phrases used by searchers including common misspellings. Ensure no more than 250 characters is used in this tag. Be selective, only put in terms highly relevant to the content of the page. Avoid one word, try to use phrases.

Example:

title tags, meta keywords, meta descriptions, meta tag guidelines, title tag guidelines

If you can find the time to write a set of Title tags and Meta tags for every page on your site you would like to achieve visibility on the search engines you will be amazed at the impact it can have on your sites’ rankings for niche phrases, without having to make any changes to “on page” copy.

Try it now and see!!!!