If you have read my guide on SEO basics or on understanding metatags. I’ve explained the bare bones of what should go into meta titles and descriptions.
But it dawned on me, that I’ve not truly explained what needs to go into them. So I’ve put together my best advice on how to write the perfect meta titles and descriptions.
What to include in a meta title
You have between 50 and 60 characters, including spaces, to say exactly what your page is about.
You need to be specific, so think about what you have written. Is it a review style blog post, or a listicle, or could you have written an in-depth how-to? So take a moment to think about what makes your blog post different?
If your blog post is about a “morning skincare routine”, how have you written this?
If you have your content says there are 12 steps to your routine, you should say that.
So the title could be “My 12 step morning skincare routine”. This is a great title, it’s clear, it’s specific and you instantly know what the blog post is about.
The issue is that this title is only 35 characters. So what would do next is add my blog name?
“My 12 step morning skincare routine | Billie Geena” that brings us to exactly 50 characters and makes the perfect meta title.
What to include in a meta description
The meta description is not a direct ranking factor, but it is your best chance to sell your page. It needs to be between 150 and 160 characters long including characters.
So let’s go back to the example from before.
We’ve written a 12 step blog post about our morning skincare routine. So we now need to write the perfect description.
The meta description should include a summary of your page, your keyword (if you can naturally fit it in) and a call to action.
Let’s my keyword is morning skincare routine.
I would write a description along the lines of:
“In this post, I have shared my tried & tested 12 step morning skincare routine, which has worked amazingly for me! Want to give it a try? Click to read more!”
This comes to 159 characters and would work perfectly.
As you can see I’ve included the keyword in the page description
“In this post, I have shared my tried & tested 12 step morning skincare routine, which has worked amazingly for me!”
And right at the end, I’ve included a call to action by addressing the potential reader.
“Want to give it a try? Click to read more!”
And that is how you write the perfect meta title and description!
I hope you have find this blog post helpful
I can’t believe how simply you just broke down something I have never understood in ten years of blogging. Thank you!
I’m so so so glad you found it helpful Kelly if you are ever stuck with anything SEO related drop me a line 🙂