SEO Blog

Meta, it’s one of those things on a website that often gets pushed to one side. Whilst design, content, architecture and linking all deserve your fullest attention, there’s no reason to neglect the smaller elements of your site’s optimisation.

Whilst the ability of Meta to influence search engine rankings might be under question, it is quite often forgotten how it can influence visitors to your site. The Meta description and, to a certain extent, the Meta title work along with your ranking to entice the click. They are the search engine billboard that can make the difference when it comes to attracting highly targeted clicks.
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As I’ve said many times before, a website is never complete. Whilst you can do too much, over complicate everything and end up ruining it if you get carried away, this is pretty rare. Even a well optimised page is often far from perfect; missing Alt tags, a clear call to action or poor Meta are just a few of the potential issues.

However, there comes a time when you have brought your key pages up to a high standard, or at least the level that you want to achieve at any rate. This is where you need to go in and fill in the gaps. A website could have hundreds of pages, so why not take the time to expand or optimise each one?
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There are literally dozens of things that you need to consider if you are to create a site that is fully optimised. Some, inevitably, are more important than others. However, that doesn’t mean that the less significant aspects should be overlooked entirely. Take your titles as a good example.

Now, having a decent Meta or page title isn’t going to see your site hurtle up the rankings instantly. They are great for adding context and attracting a click, but it’s not going to transform your fortunes overnight.

So why should you bother?
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It’s all well and good telling somebody that using keywords within their site content is good, but this generally creates more questions than it does provide answers. How many keywords should each page have? Should you use variations? Where should they be included?

The issue with keywords is that if you get it wrong, it can be costly. If you think it’s a good idea to cram as many on one page as is humanly possible, then you’re wrong. Similarly, if you’re of the opinion that a couple scattered here and there will work a charm, SEO probably isn’t for you.
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How often have you searched on Google and read the short description and it has either been garbled nonsense or cuts off mid-sentence? It happens. In fact it continues to happen with worrying regularity.

Your default Meta will often be the first area of content that the search engines can find. In many cases this will be your body text on that particular page; however, occasionally it will be your navigation titles, links or even footer text.

Not only is this not exactly the best way of optimising your site, it will also surrender one of your prime opportunities to entice the click. Who is really going to click on a site that has a description reading ‘|Home|Services|About Us|Contact Us|’? It’s an avoidable nonsense.
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As a follow up to my earlier post – Getting More Meat in your Meta – I thought it would be a good idea to explore some of the opportunities it presents. Whilst the obvious temptation is to just cram keywords in there and hope for some SEO benefit as a consequence, there are far more creative ways to deal with Meta.

Before going any further let’s look at why Meta is important. Well, first and foremost the content in both the description and title appear in the search engine results pages. This means that when somebody uses your targeted search terms, it will appear as the entry point to your site (assuming you appear at all of course). Herein lies your opportunity.
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SEO is a funny old thing. Some elements will work better than others; some changes you make will see you climb the ranks others will see no effect at all or, worse still, a drop.

To see a drop in direct response to SEO work is extremely rare though. Unless you have somehow broken the rules of Google, maybe by getting a bad link, or have ruined your content, any change should be beneficial.

Let’s take your link profile as a good example. If you employ ethical link building practices then there can be no damage done to your site’s ranking. Of course if you do stray over onto the dark side and buy a link, get involved in a link farm or start inter-linking with some dodgy characters, then you might do more damage than good.
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It’s a difficult one this. On the one hand you have the understanding that solid links will provide authority and help you rank better. On the other, there’s a desire to have everything on your site perfectly optimised. Meta, headers, scripts, tags, links and content; get that right and you have to be on to a winner.

Of course the easy answer is to do both. If you have perfect SEO, then you should have a pretty decent ranking at the end. For me though, on site SEO has to take precedence if time and resources are at a premium.
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Meta is a funny old thing. Every website has it to some extent, but still so few are willing to take full advantage of it. Some just choose to copy and paste some content from the site, some just have the same Meta description for every page, whilst others just don’t bother at all.

Not only is Meta another fantastic opportunity to explicitly tell the search engines what your page is all about, but it can do the same for your visitors too. The Meta description, by and large, is featured within the search engine results page. Therefore it is a great opportunity to get a little more meat into your marketing efforts and really help to earn a click.

A search engine ranking alone won’t guarantee you visitors. People don’t want to have their time wasted, so they are looking to find a site that meets their requirements first time around. With your Meta description, you have a great opportunity to tell them exactly what you offer and offer them a reason for coming in.

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The Meta description might well be an opportunity to give your page added keyword context, but it does plenty more besides.

When somebody uses a search engine, they type in a search query and have returned to them a series of related lists on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Ordinarily, within the natural results, there will be ten competing sites; starting with the most relevant first.

Each page has a title (your Meta title in fact), which will indicate initial relevance to the searcher. However, beneath this is a short description. This is your Meta description.

By default, your Meta is often the first sentence from your page content or a mixture of text that includes highlighted keywords. Whilst this might be fine in the context of your page, it might not provide the information that will encourage a click. Ultimately, that is what you need [see: Getting More from Your Meta].
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