June 22 2022
Let’s Get Meta – Metadata, That Is
After typing in a word or phrase on a search engine you are led to a search engine result page that contains thousands, if not millions, of results. How do you decide which one to click on first? A lot of times, you will decide if a page is worth clicking on based on the meta description that appears under the link. This is just one SEO element that can help you beat out the competition by giving insight into what the user will find when they click through to your website.
What is a Meta Description?
The term metadata means data about data. A meta description is when an HTML element shows a brief summary of a webpage. A page’s meta description will be displayed as part of the search engine results and is considered a form of advertising copy. It appears underneath the website’s clickable title tag and gives online searchers a quick glance at the content on a website before they decide to open it.
Descriptions can be any length but Google tends to keep the summaries around 160 characters. Instead of focusing on the quantity of information try to focus on quality so your link’s description drives more click-throughs to your website. The most effective descriptions keep the character count below 160, create distinct descriptions for each page, avoid duplicate meta descriptions on your website, and match search intent.
Keep in mind, that even if you think your description is perfect, Google may replace it. They do this by finding a sentence on your page that they think is more appropriate.
How Does a Meta Description Help Your Website?
Meta descriptions for websites are very important because they contain summaries of the page’s contents, including keywords associated with the content. Metadata can improve a page’s click-through rate (CTR) which can help better a page’s rank. Using metadata in this way allows you to advertise the content to whoever is searching so they can decide if your webpage contains what they need.
Other Metadata Elements Include:
- Title tags – Tells search engines which title you would like displayed on the SERP. Important because it’s what draws people in for a possible click-through to your page.
- Robot meta tags – Provides instructions to the search engine if you would like them to crawl or index your website.
- Viewport meta tags – Viewport is what a website user can see on a webpage. The viewport meta tag instructs the browser on how to display the webpage on different screen sizes.
Best Practices as Recognized by Google
Some pages fill the meta keyword tag with a list of target keywords in an attempt to get more traffic to their website. Google no longer uses meta keywords to determine ranking because the meta tags were overused and drowned out websites that were actually relevant. It is recommended to remove meta keyword tags from your web pages.
FYI: TopSpot’s 23-point SEO setup checklist covers all of these and more. Contact us to see how we can help with your search engine optimization.
For other meta tags, keep the following in mind:
Title tags
- Need to be unique
- Brief, but descriptive (don’t be generic)
- Make it click-worthy
- Match search intent
- Include a target key phrase
- Title should be under 60 characters
Meta description
- Write a unique description
- Summarize the webpage information
- Make it click-worthy
- Match search intent
- Include a target key phrase
- Description should be under 160 characters
Meta robots
- Only use meta robot tags when you want to restrict the way Google crawls your page
- Don’t use robots.txt to block pages with meta robot tags
Meta viewport
- Use the meta viewport tag on all of your website’s pages
- Use a standard tag unless you understand the more complex side of meta viewpoint
Meta Data Can Help with Accessibility
According to the Pew Research Center, 75% of Americans with disabilities report using the internet on a daily basis. Metadata can help create accessibility to ensure that web pages are available for everyone. There are various elements that can be employed to make a website accessible. A screen reader-friendly webpage means all text is accessible and images are described (through alt text). Another accommodation is when a page is screen reader-friendly and has full audio. Full audio indicates that the whole page can be read out loud. Other accessibility issues include flashing lights and loud sounds. It is important to make these things known before a visitor clicks through since they can trigger various medical conditions.
What Does This Mean for You?
Metadata can be utilized to basically be free advertising if written correctly. By updating some of the information that your website displays on the search engines, you can drive more traffic to your website and bump up your click-through rate. A higher click-through rate also contributes to a higher ranking. Providing accessibility makes it more user-friendly which is beneficial for everyone.