Composing Page Titles and Meta Tags

Having your website picked up by Google or other search engines is a much desired goal. Large companies can spend thousands of dollars with groups that specialize in this and guarantee results. However, in most cases you can get good results by sticking with the basics — incorporating well written page titles and meta tags.

Meta tags are descriptive sets of information about the subject of your web page, embedded within the HTML code. They are invisible to someone visiting your web page, but they are recognized by the search engines, which use them to catalog your pages. Your web designer can easily add them to your pages; however, you may be better qualified to write them, since you know the words that describe your business best.

Page Titles

Every web page has a title. This is what shows up in the browser's title bar. The words in the page title are among the most important words a search engine uses to catalog your page. And the title itself is displayed in the search result. For this reason, the title should be as descriptive as possible and contain heavy-hitter key words. In the title for the home page of my site — Graphic Design and Web Design from Seattle graphic designer Mitchell Albala — the key descriptive words are my name, "Print", "Web", "Design", and "Seattle". Each page can have a different title, but you may still want to use some of the same keywords. Avoid overused and non-descriptive words. For example, "Welcome", "Internet", "Home page", or "my" are dead words that will do nothing to help identify you or the service you offer.

meta tags

The "Description" Meta Tag. There are two types of meta tags. The description meta tag is simply a brief summary (25 words or less) of what the site is about. The description will appear after the page title in a search result. Thus, when your page is returned on a search, the searcher can see exactly what your site is about.

The "Keyword" Meta Tag. The other type of meta tag is the keyword meta tag. This tag is simply a list of “key” words or buzzwords. They are the words people might actually search on to find your site. Some of the key words the Studio Perspective site uses are: "Mitchell Albala," "Design," "Print" and "Web Design."
While having your web site show up in a search is a much desired goal, I also urge my clients not to depend on this alone. Promote your new web site by advertising your web address in all your promotional materials — mailings, advertising, brochures, business cards, and letterheads. After all, you have the most direct link to the community you want to serve, and might as well capitalize on those existing connections.