So – if you read part 1, you may recall that having relevant page titles and meta descriptions on your web site pages can help boost your SEO and search results.
But you still need to know what words to put in there!
The short answer is, put in words that your customers will use to find you.
The long answer is – research, trial and error, and testing are all very likely involved to determine what those best words and phrases may be.
Here’s an example. Back in the olden days of the web, airlines optimized their sites for “low fares,” using the words familiar to them as insiders. Turns out customers didn’t want low fares. They were searching for “cheap flights” instead.
Using the words your customers use is a great place to start.
Though, honestly, using anything more specific than “Home” and “About Us” will help you stand out at least a little.
Another thing to consider is consistency. There are several page elements that search engines check on any given page. If you use the same words and phrases across the page, assuming they are helpful and relevant, that will help you score higher for that given search. The plugins like Yoast that show the green, yellow, and red dots – they are basically checking for the same terms in a few places and scoring you accordingly. Which does not mean you can simply repeat everything and boom! Instant success. That’s where testing, research, and also a good content or SEO agency (like the ones we work with) can really help.
But – if you sell fancy pies, and your page title includes ‘fancy pies’, and your meta description says ‘fancy pies,’ and your heading tags include ‘fancy pies’ and your page content mentions ‘fancy pies’, and so on… anyone searching for ‘fancy pies’ is more likely to find your page. And if you’re lucky, they also buy a pie.