Meredith's Husband | SEO for People Who Don't Like SEO
SEO for people who don't like SEO. I run an SEO agency. My wife Meredith is a family photographer. Our podcast explains how I got Meredith's website to the top of Google and answers questions from photographers about SEO and website marketing.
Meredith's Husband | SEO for People Who Don't Like SEO
3 Steps to Better Title Tags
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Title Tag Cheat Sheet + Tutorial
https://www.meredithshusband.com/blog/how-to-write-title-tags
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Importance of Title Tags for SEO
Speaker 1Think about when you do a Google search . Yes , how do you decide which website you are going to visit ? So you do the search , the results all come up on Google . And exactly how do you decide which website looks good ? Let's assume that you don't just click on the first one .
Speaker 2I do , the one that is most specific to what I'm looking for .
Speaker 1So when you say whatever looks most appropriate , how do you determine which is most appropriate ? Exactly where do you look ? What do you look at ?
Speaker 2I look at the title , for example . I was looking for compression packing bags . I went to best compression traveling bags , 24 .
Speaker 1That's the title tag . I assume you are talking about the big line of text in blue , the first text that is the title tag . So the title tag and I bring this up because I still hear sort of frequently that title tags are something you do for SEO it's not something you do for users , it's just something you plug for users , it's just something you plug in for Google , because once you get to the site , the title tag it's not on the website , you don't see it .
Speaker 2Oh , it's not .
Speaker 1But my point is , which you have helped me to demonstrate , thank you . The title tag is the single most important SEO element for users , for users . And that's why it's important for SEO .
Speaker 2Right , that makes a lot of sense .
Speaker 1Now , yes , once you get to the website , you don't know what the title tag is .
Speaker 2However , it gets you to the website .
Speaker 1Without a good title tag , nobody is going to get to that page 100% . So when you look at that title tag , what was it ? You sort of recapped what it was . But what again was it in that title tag that made you think , yeah , I'm going to go look at , that's the one I want .
Speaker 2Clear information that was pertinent to what I was seeking .
Speaker 1Correct . So this is a little bit about how you want to write a title tag .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1Right away . What is the absolute most important thing ? Accuracy it needs , yeah , well , that is important , but to you as a user , it correlates with what you are looking for .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1Essentially , essentially , I'm going to say that's the keyword or the key phrase . Right , it has what you . That is first in the title tag , first thing you see , and after that , or in addition to that , it has to be sort of enticing yeah , okay , there's , that's your title tag .
Speaker 2That's what you're doing for a title tag Right .
Speaker 1Don't write a title tag thinking you're doing it for SEO . Write it knowing that you are trying to get people to visit that specific page , not your website in general . Just that every single page needs to have a unique , its own title tag , different from every other page to appeal to people looking for it Correct , and that's why this is so important for Google , right ?
Speaker 1Because Google knows it's so important for users . Now you mentioned accuracy . Yes , that's another consideration that you have to take into account , because Google will know if your title tag says one thing like best compression bags 2024 , and your actual web page is about socks for your puppies , it's going to know that that's not accurate . You're never even going to get onto the first page of Google , so you got to avoid that . But , number one , I got three steps for you .
Speaker 2Number one .
Speaker 1Just know why you're writing , understand why you're writing and write from that perspective . That's why you're doing title tags and just keep that in mind while you're creating . Right , okay , step two figure out what all your title tags are . The easiest way to do this is just go to Google , type in site S-I-T-E , colon , and then the name of your domain . You don't need to put in the HTTPS or the www , and that's just going to show you all of the pages on your site or whatever domain you enter there . You can do this for anyone's site , but to figure out what your own titles are , this is the easiest and quickest way to do it .
Speaker 2Wow yeah .
Speaker 1So you can go see them and right away you will hopefully see . If there are any there that are not good . They're going to pop out at you . At this point You're going to be like whoa , wow , those need to be redone .
Speaker 2Yeah , and you can redo them .
Speaker 1Yes , okay , yeah . And you can redo them . Yes , okay yeah , squarespace , wordpress , every website platform out there has a way for you to adjust title tags .
Speaker 2And that's okay . It's not going to affect anything , except it'll further clarify .
Speaker 1Right . Don't change your URLs Right . That would have a big impact .
Speaker 2There we go .
Speaker 1Sometimes they're called slugs . Don't change the URLs , we're just talking about the title . They are technically called title tags . Sometimes people call them SEO titles , a name which I don't like really , because there is some confusion between title tags and headings on a page . So once you visit a site , you're likely going to see right at the top what you would normally call the title of an article .
Speaker 2Okay , right .
Speaker 1Yeah , but that's the heading . That is not the title . That is the heading . It's an H we call it an H1 tag and it's probably going to be very similar to your title . Right , because people , there needs to be consistency . If you click on something that says compression bags and land on a page that says pet socks , you're going to be like what ? So they're probably going to be very similar but not identical . And so when people are talking , like when I'm giving a tip about how to handle your titles , you want to know that that's the title tag , it's not the heading . Just try to keep those two . This is a tip in itself . Try to avoid confusing those , because I have seen people giving out advice about how to handle your titles and they're talking about the wrong thing . They're talking about headings . So hopefully you will avoid some future frustration .
Speaker 2Yeah , number two .
Speaker 1Okay , step number three .
Speaker 2Oh three .
Speaker 1I have a cheat sheet on how to do this . Oh , what you want . There's some more things that there's some more best practices that you want to do with , like you know , character length and some words that you want to avoid , and things like that . I will link it below .
Speaker 2OK .
Speaker 1But a few of those details are . Like I said , every page needs a unique title tag .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1They have to be different . You're talking about a specific page . Yeah , with every title tag , not just your website .
Speaker 2Is it kind of like you want to make a sign for you know when you're driving and people have signs on the side of the road like turn here for blah blah ?
Speaker 1No , I would say it would be more like the signage above the door of a shop . Okay , you go by a deli and it's . It says what it is and what they sell .
Speaker 2Bagel and tea shop .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's basically what it is . In fact , this is weird , but you can . We live in Brooklyn so these are really common . But walking down the street , if you look at the signs above shops , they would have in big , huge letters what I would probably call is the title tag and then the meta description beneath it , all the little things that they sell Ice , cold beer , whatever . I don't know what else a deli would sell besides ice cold beer , but sandwiches , flowers . Oh God , I'm such an American . You also want to be aware of the length of title tags .
Speaker 2Okay , is this number three ?
Speaker 1This is part of number three is the cheat sheet .
Speaker 1Okay , I'm just giving you some things as an example of what is on the cheat sheet the length . You don't want it to be too long because Google is going to cut it off Now . There is no penalty for having a title tag that's too long . That's kind of a common myth . Is that if your title tag is too long , it's a penalty , and this is something that is reported in SEMrush as being an issue , but it is a warning .
Short Title Tags for SEO
Speaker 1It as being an issue , but it is a warning . It's not an error . The problem with having title tags that are too long is you're not conveying a complete thought to people .
Speaker 1That's what I was going to say . You're saying your title tag would be best compression bags of 2024 and why you need , and then a dot dot dot . Right , it needs to be short enough so that you can finish a thought .
Speaker 2Right , it's just better for users . Yeah , yeah , it is . Yeah , you kind of want to go , oh , that's it , yes , and have every just make it easy for people to find it .
Speaker 1It's much nicer to have a full thought rather than a thought fragment , tangent , let's say . And then dot , dot , dot , yeah . So the cheat sheet has instructions or tips like this and a few more . I will link that below . Excellent , but this is something I recommend , if you've never done it , if you've never used the site command to look at all the title tags of your site .
Speaker 2I recommend doing it . Yes , I see why .
Speaker 1It can be insightful .
Speaker 2Learn a little about yourself .
Speaker 1This will be brief . I might put it in the end or something .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1I don't know how was your Tonga trip .
Speaker 2This will be brief . I might put it in the end or something . I don't know . How was your Tonga trip ?
Speaker 1It's more than you can fathom and after the first day I couldn't even you can't comprehend what is actually happening in front of your eyes . I do , or I did check out Cassie's Instagram her stories while you were there , and in one of them she was photographing a whale and the noise in the background was somebody with a snorkel in her mouth saying this oh my . God oh my . God , oh my God , oh my God , that was me .
