True or False?
Stacy Farrell
Strategy Before Tactics: Marketing & content strategies, to build your exposure & credibility as an industry leader, ensuring the right message, at the right time, in the right place, to drive customer growth & success ?
If you now have your content, what is the best way to optimise it for the search engines and your website?
1. Optimise Your Title Tag
A title tag is a clickable headline that shows up when a user executes a search. The tag is the line of text that’s placed at the top of each search result. There are a few reasons why title tags are important for optimised content.
Mainly, title tags help search engines know what your page is all about. Also, it may very well be the factor that determines if a user selects your page or a competitor’s page.
In order to make sure that your title tag is optimised, there are several criteria you'll have to meet:
- Don't stuff several keywords into the title
- Put your target keywords at the beginning
- Keep the title tag to under 60 characters
- Your tag should be specific and relevant to the content
Failing to follow the tips above may result in you ranking lower or even being penalised by Google.
2. Optimise Your Meta Description
The meta description is the small line of text that shows up under the URL and title tag. Google claims that meta descriptions don’t directly impact a page’s ranking. However, it may affect whether a person decides to click on your page or a different one.
It’s also worth noting that a page’s clickthrough rate (CTR) can also indirectly impact a page’s ranking. When coming up with a meta description, it's recommended that you:
- Provide a specific, short description of what the content is about
- Keep it to less than 160 characters
- Include keywords that are relevant
That last bit is extremely important as the keyword will be highlighted when the user looks at their search results.
3. Optimise Your URL
The structure of your URL is another SEO component that will indirectly impact your site’s rankings. This is because the URL may determine if a user decides to click on your content, which will affect the clickthrough rate.
Your URL should be inviting and simple to understand. Users may be turned off by ones that are mysterious and long, as they may seem unsafe to click on.
Optimising your content does not really end the moment that you finish writing it. Let your work reach as far as it can by utilising these three simple steps in every content that you make.
Having a thorough understanding of what content and SEO are will help you develop a better command of the two in boosting your website to have better traffic and in delivering information that searchers seek.
For more information, contact us today.
