Give your website the ability to rank higher in search engines: fill in your Meta data! Meta data is information in your website’s code that describes your site to search engines. There are three Meta data fields that are important: Page Title, Meta Keywords, and Meta Description. We’ll explain what each field is, why it’s important, and how you can use it to help your website rank better.
Every web page on your website should have a unique page title. Page title is the most important on page field to Google, so include your targeted keywords as part of the page title. Also, you’ll want to note that Search Engines only look at the first 64 to 75 characters of a page title and ignore the rest. See the screen shot below of a Google search for CPOnline. The blue link text in the first result reads ”Radiant Systems – CPOnline”. This text is the page title for the www.CounterPointOnline.com home page. Be sure you make the best use of this space—put valuable keyword phrases first and your business name last.
The second most important Meta data field is Meta description. This is an opportunity for you to describe a web page to a search engine in two short sentences. We recommend using a format like this (assume you sell widgets): ”Widgets at my-business-name. We offer a great selection of this widget, that widget, and hard to find red plastic widgets with free shipping on $80+ orders!” The Meta description displays as the description below your website’s link in search results. See the screen shot above. The Meta description reads “CPOnline is your CounterPoint system’s extension to the Web and the world! Easily create an ecommerce store from your existing CounterPoint V7 or …”. A good rule of thumb is to write two short sentences. Anything more than that will get chopped off, similar to the example above.
Finally, the least important Meta data field is Meta keywords. Fill in your Meta keywords field with 6 to 8 specific keyword phrases describing the products or services offered on that web page. While this Meta data field is in your website’s code and won’t be visible to you, search engines will see it, so be sure to fill Meta keywords out. Also, this is the least valuable of the three Meta data fields, so don’t expect over night success from populating Meta keywords. There are many contributing factors to a successful Search Engine Marketing campaign.
For the most impact in search engines, don’t duplicate Meta data across your entire site. Write unique page titles, Meta descriptions, and Meta keywords for every page in your site. You also want to include the same targeted keywords in your item descriptions. For example, if used “red plastic widget” in the page title, Meta description, and Meta keywords for a particular page, you should include “red plastic widget” in the item name and description that come from CounterPoint.
