Search Engine Optimization

SEO Meta Tags: Title, Meta Description Tags

Understand why SEO meta tags including title, meta description, meta robots tags are make or break for search engine optimisation and how to implement them in HTML

Sep 1, 2024

SEO Meta Tags are the one of the most important aspects of On-Page SEO Optimisation of a website. SEO meta tags are pieces of information in the HTML code of a website that let search engines understand the purpose and content of a page. They also help users get a sense of the page and quickly assess whether the page contains the information they need.

The 2 critical SEO meta tags are Title and Meta Description. Other important meta tags include robots meta tag, canonical tag, hreflang tag in the <head> section of your HTML code.

Note that the Meta Keywords tag that was earlier considered very significant for SEO has now been disavowed by Google. Google’s official word is, “The meta-keyword tag is not used by Google Search, and it has no effect on indexing and ranking at all.” This is because the meta keywords was frequently misused by website owners to misguide Google and users about the content and intention of the page in question.

If you are unsure of what is SEO, what are the different aspects of SEO and how do Meta Tags fit in there - read our SEO Guide for Beginners before you delve into SEO Meta Tags

In this quick article, we will explore the 3 most important SEO Meta Tags, how they are used and what are the best practices that you must follow for SEO in relation to these HTML meta tags.

Title Tag
Meta Description Tag
Meta Robots Tag

SEO Meta Tags: Title Tag

Title tag for a website conveys the content of the page to Google and users in short. Apart from Google crawling the Title tag of a website for indexation, here’s where the title tag is visible to users -

Where Title Tag Appears

On SERPs
On Browser Tabs as Tab Title
In Link previews on Whatsapp, Slack, Facebook and others

Best Practices for Title Tags

As the SEO Title Tag serves the dual purpose of explaining the page content to Google and also enticing the users to click on the page link in SERPs or as an external link, the best practices related to the title tag must serve both purposes equally.

Length: The length of the Title tag must be 60 characters or less as Google truncates the title that appears in search results to 60 chars.
Keywords: One must also include the Primary Keyword of the page in the Title tag. Preferably include it as early in the tag as possible. While Google is moving towards semantic search, ideally insert the exact primary keyword into the Title tag for the best results.
Language and Tone:
- With a short space of 60 characters, focus on communicating the content of the page as crisply and clearly as possible.
- Avoid stop words and other unnecessary details. Keep it tight - use only the most important words or phrase that reflects your content.
- While you must try to make the page relevant for an user at any point of time, including a date also gives a user a good idea of when the page was created or last updated and may help in increasing the CTR of the page.

SEO Meta Tags: Meta Description Tag

The SEO Meta Description tag for a website provides more details about a page that is not already covered in the Title of the page. It can contain snippets of what is covered in the page, the summary of the page or a short list of the page’s content. It is meant to a more comprehensive overview of what to expect or not to expect on the page.

Here’s where the meta description tag is visible to users -

Where Meta Description Tag Appears

Similar to the Title tag, Meta Description also appears in similar placements, i.e. in SERPs and Link previews.

On SERPs
In Link previews on Whatsapp, Slack, Facebook and others

Best Practices for Meta Description Tags

The meta description tag provides the user paramount information about the page before the user decides to visit it. Hence a punchy and action packed description is a must. Here are the practices you can follow to maximise your CTRs while optimising the meta description tag for SEO

Length: The length of the meta description tag must be 160 characters or less. Similar to truncation of Title tag, Google truncates the description that is shown in SERPs to 160 chars.
Keywords: The meta description tag must contain the primary keyword, but must also contain a couple of secondary keywords or variations of the primary keyword as well. Google uses the title and description to map the pages to relevant keywords, hence it is imperative that you provide the right signals in both title and description.
Language and Tone:
- Description should not be a replica of the Title tag. Use the description to provide additional information about the page to both Google and the user.
- Include a call-to-action - Try to induce the user to take action (i.e. click on your link) through action-oriented keywords like Shop Now, Read More, etc.
- Provide enough value to entice the user but do not give up the best information upfront.
- Try and use 2 or maximum 3 sentences to avoid overwhelming the user.

SEO Meta Tags: Meta Robots Tag

Robots meta tag is similar to the robots.txt file and serves a similar purpose. Use the Robots tag to indicate to Google and other Search Engines whether you would like your page to be indexed and followed or not.

Best Practices for Meta Robots Tags

By default, all pages are indexable and do-follow. Hence if you would like that, you do not need to be specify it as such. You can forego the robots meta tag.

If you would like to block crawlers from your page and it be no-follow, you can use the following meta robots tag

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

You can also specify other interesting details like length of the snippet that the search engine is allowed to take, image or video preview and more.

You can also add specific rules for specific crawlers like googlebot.

In short, Robots meta tag is extremely useful in indicated to search crawlers whether this page is to be indexed and shown in search results. However, the robots meta tag is not directly visible to users.

Summary of SEO Meta Tags

SEO Meta Tags play an irreplaceable role in a webpage’s SEO and search engine presence. To maximise your presence in SERPs, you must specify the main 3 SEO Meta Tags at the least

Title tag - Which indicates the page title and summarises the purpose of the page in 60 chars or less
Meta Description Tag - Which adds to the Title Tag and indicates the action that you intend the user to take
Meta Robots Tag - Which specifies whether you would like the page to be indexed and followed or not

We hope you found this crisp summary useful. Now that you understand SEO Meta Tags and their purpose, craft a more comprehensive On-Page SEO Strategy in 10 easy steps.

For more information, reach us on always@rewaqe.com