Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral part of crafting a successful online presence, and as search engines change and your businesses grow, so will your SEO requirements. In 2021, the search engine landscape is likely to be very different from today, and what worked for you in the past may not work for you in the future. However, in this post, we will guide you on the basics of SEO in WordPress. In particular, we will focus on meta descriptions and titles. Firstly we will look at the tried and tested techniques, plus useful plugins that will help get you off to a flying start. Some of these practices have been around for years and play as a key foundation for a solid SEO strategy.
Hello Meta Descriptions
Blog titles and meta descriptions are important for SEO. Strategically thought out descriptions increases your chance of showing up on more searches. Several WordPress themes don’t allow you to change the post title or meta description. Do you know how to edit or add a description on a page? Fear not, in this post we will explain the basics to get you up and running in no time.
There is a lot of confusion about title tags and meta descriptions. One of the most common questions asked on forums, like Reddit’s r/seo, is – “What’s the point of having a blog post title and meta description?”. They are both seen as pointless marketing techniques to entice the user to click from the search result. However, it seems these promotional aspects have been overlooked when it comes to SEO. Traffic Travis published an article in 2009 advising businesses to dissociate themselves from content farms because they only care about the instant gratification of getting traffic instead of building quality sites that rank well over time.
The debates go on and to be honest. Nobody knows how to manipulate a search engine 100%. The algorithms change like the wind and the landscape of content creation is moving fast.
At 247 Digital we mix it up and believe a good foundation of on-site techniques, parred with rich content, a fast server and a good helping of backlinks, will put any website in good stead to start achieving results.
To find out more about meta descriptions and titles, there is a great blog on ahref.com that is worth a read.
SEO Tools For WordPress
WordPress is not that SEO friendly out of the box. However, the use of plugins can easily change that. We use a variety of tools to make sure all the websites we build are off to a good start SEO wise.
Even if we are not part of helping our clients with ongoing SEO, we always try to make sure the basics are covered before we hand a site over to the client. Some of the SEO tools we use inside WordPress, actually guide you, just like the writing app Grammarly. These tools base results on an SEO score, red meaning there are a lot of issues to be corrected, amber meaning ok and green meaning, all the boxes are ticked.
Having green lights does not by any means indicate that your site will instantly rank in Google. SEO is an ongoing project and takes time.
A Few Mentions Of Tools We Like
More on Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions and titles, play a big part in how your site shows up in the search engines and is a great opportunity for you to promote and sell your services or products. Look at each page on your site as a business card that the message can be tailored for better conversions.
You can have the best looking site in the world, but without spending time to create well-researched keywords in your titles and meta descriptions, your site will struggle to rank. Google is now changing the landscape again in 2021 and the focus is on page speed and other factors relating to website performance. However, this does not mean you should shift focus away from meta descriptions and other meta tags.
Conclusion
SEO is a huge topic and there are so many factors to getting your site to rank well. Site age, character counts on the page, HTML errors, page speed, the list is endless and we will cover more of these topics in the future. The main take away from this post is that blog post titles and meta descriptions do matter in 2021. To get a good understanding of this topic.
Look at some of your favourite websites and see how they do it, the tools I mentioned earlier will also help you up your SEO game.
If SEO is not for you, or you don’t have the time to learn. Feel free to contact us. We would love to help.
