Metadata are a series of ‘tags’ within a webpage’s code, explaining to search engines and Users alike what that particular webpage is about.
You can take a look at your own meta tags by going to one of your website’s pages, clicking on ‘View’ at the top of your browser, and then ‘Page Source’.
What you’ll see here is the code that your webpage is built with - and this is what Google sees when it looks at your site. Near the top should be your meta tags - looking similar to the below (code from one of our own webpages - ‘Why SEO?’).
<title>SEO Marketing Workshop - Why SEO? | SEO Marketing Workshop</title> <meta name="description"content="SEO is critical to online success-find out why here."/> <meta name="keywords"content="seo, marketing, internet, business, search, engine"/>
Above you can see 3 important meta tags; Title, Meta Description and Keyword. These are explained below:
- Title Tag: The ‘Title’ of the page (you can see it in the blue bar at the top of your browser)
- Meta Description Tag: This describes what the page is about
- Keyword Tag: Whilst not as important as it used to be, for best practice this should contain the strategic keywords for that specific page
Meta tags are very important for two reasons.
1. For Search Engines: Search engines ‘read’ meta tags when they visit your site in order to assess whether the page is relevant – and therefore it’s critical they explain clearly what the page is about. Meta tags should be unique for each of your pages, and should be in line with the keyword strategy for that specific page.
2. For Users: When your site ranks in search engine results, the Title tag and Meta Description Tags are displayed to Users. They therefore need to explain clearly and concisely what that particular page is about. They also need to encourage Users to click - as even if you’re on the first page of the search results, you’ve got to compete against the other 9 organic results (and all the Paid ads!) for the User’s click. Your tags therefore need to be succint, enticing, and clearly communicate your offering and USPs - in short, they need to be really good advertising copy.
As part of the Launch Package, we’ll ensure all the metadata for your entire site is uniquely and professionally optimised, with the creation of concise Title, Description and Keyword tags for all of your main webpages.
