Back to SEO Basics: Optimizing Titles, Descriptions and Tags

When it comes to SEO, how important are fundamental SEO tips and techniques such as titles, descriptions and tags when it comes to rankings? Titles and tags are very important, in fact, they are one of the most overlooked components to securing or maintaining a competitive search engine position.

The tendency to overlook basic SEO fundamentals is not uncommon. In the heat of competition comfort is something you cannot afford. Each page in your site has the ability under the right circumstances to reach the top 10 results for a specific range and scope of keywords.

Each time you utilize the same title or description across multiple pages in your site, you essentially diffuse the effectiveness for that page to have (a) uniqueness and (b) not to trip a potential duplicate content filter and end up on page 4 vs. page 1 for various related terms.

Auditing your website for inconsistencies and refining them can invigorate a broader spectrum of traffic and reinforce your topical theme. With the right approach, the right mixture of components and the right budget virtually any keyword is attainable.

1) Keep Title’s Relevant – Keeping the title relevant to the main topic “OF THAT PAGE: is crucial.

Search position can be capped and plateau in the SERPs (search engine result pages) as a result of an irrelevant title. Don’t merely assume that search engines won’t notice the same title and description on multiple pages, they will. Even though it seems insignificant, revising your title tags to something succinct and relevant (for each page) can create buoyancy for your rankings.

2) Make Titles SEO Friendly – The idea is, keep the titles direct and to the point, but also remember it must have click appeal. I try to add the keyword at least once and not to exceed 7 words.

You can always use headings (or the description tag) to attract readers or incorporate a call to action if plausible. However, your title must quickly convey the solution to the searcher as well as be used to funnel traffic after the page gets indexed and builds some authority over time.

Your title can be crafted to acquire a specific phrase based on using exact match.As is does, the “exact match” keywords in the title will have the ability to rank on their own under various synonyms and related phrases.

3) Use Keyword Research for Tags – Not everyone does this, but you can use keyword research tools to tag your content to capture a broader cross-section of traffic. If your keywords have long-tail modifiers, you can use this strategy in tandem with link building to secure a solid position across multiple phrases just from intelligent use of tags. The idea is, the main title is the primary phrase, each tag is like an alternate title that can rank on its own (under the right conditions).

4) Create continuity with URL Structures – One of the most obvious things you can do is coordinate your titles with your CMS (content management system). For example, if you are using wordpress changing the permalink settings to an optimized naming convention from logging in and going to Settings> Permalinks> Selecting custom structure from the radio button then adding /%category%/%postname%/ instantly transforms your titles from post?-2.html to website.com/keyword-rich-category/keyword-rich-title/ if you have the mod rewrite function enabled.

This is priceless for SEO when the pages get indexed, a relevant keyword in the title, in the description, in the tags and on the page create the appropriate continuity and are precursors for a top 10 ranking. With on page SEO, every little bit helps, so it is often the aggregate effect of fundamental details such as this that distinguish the top ranking sites from those located several pages away from the top 10 in search engines.

Each CMS system should be able to utilize SEO friendly naming conventions / URLs structures. If not, then it is time to reconsider an alternative.

5) Link to the Target Page with Keywords Located in the Title Tag – If I choose to implement internal linking to strengthen the theme of your website. Make sure that you reference the target page with the most relevant anchor text in the link. A link that passes value is a link that passes value, it does not matter if it is internal (from your site) or external (from others) relevant link text matters, so this is your opportunity to take 50% of the chance out of the equation for your rankings.

Although you cannot control how others link to you, you can control how you link to yourself and using the keywords from the title tag add additional page weight that distinguish your site from others who fail to implement this technique. The obvious rewards will develop over time, but one example is the spawning of double listings in search engines from using relevant internal link anchor text (based on the target pages title).

In Closing

This was not intended to be a how to manual, just something to bring attention to the fact that titles are your first line of defense and relevance when it comes to SEO. What you do with them matters, but more importantly, the more in depth your analysis is, the more continuity you will be able to fortify each page as you start battling it out with the competition for specific keywords and key phrases.