Title Tag
Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.
Ensure your provider name and your “main” keywords appear in the title tag of a page. Write your title tag in a natural way that uses your main keyword at the start with variations added too. Think about what looks natural and might entice searchers to click on your site link in Google. FYI, Google frequently (but not always) uses the title tag verbatim as the title link in search results.
Here’s an example format:
[Provider Name] | [Geo-Modifier] | [Keyword(s)] in [City], [State]NOTE: Try to avoid having pages with the same (duplicate) title tag
In desktop search results, Google will display approximately 80 characters of a title tag but this can vary. Since recent SERP redesigns, they’re now displaying based on pixel width. For example, Mobile title tag lengths are sometimes a little bit longer than the desktop - approximately 90 characters .
Keep in mind that these numbers are approximations. Google uses an Arial font and because 1) Character widths vary and 2) Google truncates at the end of a word, the number of characters displayed by Google will vary.
In some cases, Google is modifying titles and then appending the brand or city (or some other modifier) to the end. Unfortunately, this auto-appended brand text still occupies space and counts against your total allowance.
Meta Descriptions
The description attribute within the <meta> tag is a good way to provide a concise, human-readable summary of each page’s content. Google will sometimes use the meta description of a page in search results snippets, if they think it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content. Accurate meta descriptions can help improve click-thru-rates for local pages.
NOTE: Try to avoid having duplicate meta descriptions on your pages
Meta Description Length
The meta description can be any length but as a general rule it’s best to keep the meta description around 200 - 250 characters. This is the approximate amount of text Google will display in a rich snippet description before truncation occurs. Again, it’s important to understand that Google auto -generates the rich snippet description based on the user’s search query as well as the content on the page.
Meta Description Guidelines
- Make it specific and relevant to the location. For example, we should always include the business name, address, geo-modifiers, telephone number, products & services, and top keywords in the description.
- Use action-oriented language. “Learn”, Discover", “Visit” and follow up with specifics (see number 1 above).
- Provide a solution or benefit. The description should preview the contents of the page. So for example, if the store location offers a drive-thru, late-night hours, order online, etc. These are things we should be sure to include in the meta description.