How to Write Effective Title Tag & Meta Descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are an important part of SEO, which help both the search engine and the searcher understand what your content is about. 

Title tags and meta descriptions may play a minor impact on whether or not content ranks in search. More importantly, title tags and meta descriptions that follow the best practices we outline below have the potential to increase click-through, drawing more viewers to your content.

How Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Appear in Search Results

General Guidance:

• Think about what your targeted searcher will see when your content appears in search results. Will your headline (title tag) and description (meta description) convince the searcher that your result is (a) directly relevant to their query and (b) the best result on the page?
• Keep length in mind
• Include your primary keyword, but don’t “keyword stuff” or “over-optimize” for your keywords
• Write naturally, and include information helpful to the searcher

Title Tags

The process for writing title tags will vary slightly based on what the content on the page is about. 

For blog posts:

• Include a modifier and a call to action, such as:
• Learn SEO: How to Write Title & Meta Tags in 2023 
• Boost Your SEO with Optimized Title & Meta Tags [2023] 
• Optimize Your Title & Meta Tags for SEO [2023 Guide]
• Title Tag Optimization: The Complete SEO Guide for 2023
• To avoid truncation in search results, aim to keep your title be no more than 60 characters in length 
• Should be sure to include the targeted keyword/phrase, ideally in the first third of the title tag
• Should relate the H1 of the page that it is written for. It does not need to match.
• Should be unique for every single page on your website

For other pages:

• Should be no more than 60 characters in length, to ensure that they are not truncated in search results 
• Should be optimized for your targeted, non-branded keyword
• If character count allows, may include a related, secondary keyword
• Targeted keyword should be included in first half of title tag
• Should be unique for every single page

General Guidance:

• Write for people first. Think SEO second. Make them click!
• Don’t trick people. Be accurate.
• No need to include the brand name unless it's your homepage. It’s possible to inject Brand alongside the title tag with structured data. It’s okay to lead with a branded term if the page is a product, service, or course page. See this page for more.

Meta Descriptions

• Think of your meta description as a sub-headline to your headline. What is a persuasive sentence that you can follow up your Title tag with?
• To avoid truncation, aim to write in a complete sentence that is between 145 and 155 characters in length. 
• If your article includes a publish date, aim to keep the length at about 120-145 characters. The date will appear before your meta description, shortening the amount of space that is available.
• Should be descriptive of what the content is about, so that the reader has a clear understanding of what they will read if they click through to your site
• Describe the main benefit and try to include a call to action.
• Should include the targeted keyword/phrase, towards the beginning of the first sentence
• Should be unique for every single page on your website
• Should be written in a style that matches your customer expectations as well as brand voice
• Should be written naturally
• Overall, aim to create genuinely compelling meta descriptions that accurately describe the content of your page and attract more clicks, while being mindful of the pixel and character limits to avoid your meta descriptions being cut short by Google.