When compared to content blogging, customer reviews and backlinks, optimizing title tags and meta descriptions seem like some of the most unimportant SEO tasks out there. Just how much benefit can you really get from changing the title of a webpage? Quite a lot, it seems. While it won’t help your website instantly rise to the top of the search engine results, they are still very important for SEO.
Not everyone sees it this way. Even some of the biggest companies neglect their title tags and meta descriptions, but when they are leveraged well, they will help hook potential customers into visiting your page.
But what are they, and how do they benefit your hearing practice? Let’s find out.
The importance of Title Tags
A title tag is an element within HTML (the coding language of the web) which defines the name of the web page. They appear as the clickable headline for a given result on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Any given web page’s title tag is intended to describe the contents of the page accurately and succinctly.
Meta title tags are important for search engines to understand what your website is about, and they give the first impression of your website to search engine users who have never heard of your practice before.
Title tags are displayed on search engine result pages. Your title tag is your search engine results title, which is why it is the first impression a user has of your site. Even if your site has ranked well, a poor title can still mean that people will not click on your link. They are also shown as placeholders in web browsers at the top of the browser in your tabs, especially for people will a lot of open browser tabs. Easily identifiable title tags help prevent the user with 10 tabs open from losing track of your page.
The importance of the Meta Description
The meta description is an HTML attribute which gives a short overview of a web page. The meta description is often displayed by search engines such as Google in a length typically up to 160 characters long. It is shown in the search results under the URL of your page and also called a snippet. It’s also often used when your articles are distributed on other websites and social channels.
For on-page SEO, it is essential to optimize the meta description. They are exceptionally important in getting user click-through from SERPs even though they are not linked directly to the search engine rankings. These short paragraphs are a chance for you to “advertise” your search content and for your potential customers to determine whether the content is relevant to the information they are searching for. That’s why it’s important to put some effort when writing your meta description, and not leave it empty. The more concise, appealing and relevant it is to the searcher, the more likely they will be to click.
Indirect benefits
Search engines like Google say that the title tag and meta description has no direct advantage – their ranking algorithms don’t factor it in. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an indirect advantage here: Google uses the click-through rate (CTR) to determine whether you are a relevant result for the search term at hand. They and other search engines view you as a good result if you have more people clicking on your website and will move you up the rankings accordingly. It is therefore very important to optimize the tags and the meta description.
Even though title tags and meta descriptions do not directly help your site rank in search engines, they are crucial to helping your user to click through to your website. Don’t overlook them because they are the only components standing between your search result and a potential hearing aid customer.
AuDSEO
Are you looking to improve your hearing practice’s local SEO presence? We have years of experience improving the search rankings of hearing practices across the country. Contact us today to see how we can help grow your business.