Description Tags- Who's in the Driver's Seat?

The last post was on Description Tags - 7 Quick Steps to Success.  While that post covered some basic things to make the most of your description tag it would be good to cover/emphasize another thought that could have an impact on the success of your description tags.

#1 Question:  Hey, we did everything you said to optimize our description tags & Google is showing a lame strange snippet from our site- What's going on?

Good question.  Here's the answer in short:  Google may totally disregard your hard work in creating compelling description tags and put whatever they want there.  Why?

Google's number one goal is to return the most relevant results to their audience, and because of this they may pull content from other portions of your page to better match the keywords used in the searcher's query.  Think about it- If you have a page on your that talks about gluten-free pasta you can likely only target one or two keyword phrases message in your description tag such as "gluten-free pasta" or "wheat free pasta".  Likely if the searcher types in those keywords the description tag you wrote will come up.  But if they type in "gluten-free spaghetti" Google may crawl that page and see that you indeed do have that phrase on the page and put together their own description tag/snippet to best match the searcher's query.  Here is Google's description with underlining and bolding added by us:

"Google's creation of sites' titles and descriptions (or "snippets") is completely automated and takes into account both the content of a page as well as references to it that appear on the web.

We use a number of different sources for this information, including descriptive information in the META tag for each page. Where this information isn't available, we may use publicly available information from DMOZ. While accurate meta descriptions can improve click through, they won't impact your ranking within search results. We frequently prefer to display meta descriptions of pages (when available) because it gives users a clear idea of the URL's content. This directs them to good results faster and reduces the click-and-backtrack behavior that frustrates visitors and inflates web traffic metrics.

While we're unable to manually change titles or snippets for individual sites, we're always working to make them as relevant as possible. You can help improve the quality of the snippets displayed for your pages by providing informative meta descriptions for each page."

What does this mean for you?

Does this mean you should just give up and not write meta descriptions?  No because in many cases Google will show your description for the search query.  But if they don't it basically comes down to what you should be doing already.  Having great content on your page, perhaps having keyword variations and well written copy so that if Google does show something different it will still be relevant.

More information on meta descriptions/snippets and how they work:

Excellent article by Ken Lyons:  Meta Description Mutiny! Take Control of Your Text Snippets

Official Google Video with Matt Cutts discussing descriptions/snippets:

Description Tags - 7 Quick Steps to Success

Your meta description tag is a valuable part of optimizing your site for Google that is often overlooked.  A description tag is basically a snippet of information on each page of your site that shows up in the search results below the heading of each search result (see picture below). The description tag does not show up on the actual page of your site in its readable text but rather is something that you enter for each page on the site.  At this time the length of the description tag shown by Google is 150 characters.

Best practices for description tags:

1.  Unique description tag for each page on your site. 

2.  Use each page as a chance to rank on Google for a phrase. 

3.  Use your target keyword(s) phrase in your description tags, preferably toward the beginning. 

4.  Use your targeted keyword phrase once, perhaps fitting in secondary phrases if possible.

5.  Use this tag to continue to interest the reader and give them extra reasons for clicking on your listing.  Think of this tag as valuable "real estate"- like a billboard that you can use to your advantage to get more clicks than you're competitor even if they are above you in the search results.

6.  Keep the description under the above amounts of characters to make your message complete and not trail off...

7.  Know that Google will not always use your description tag in the search results- see the following article:
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2009/11/19/meta-description-mutiny

Additional Links: 

Google's page on what they look for in the meta description tag and how best to optimize it:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35264

SEO for Blog Posts Part 4: The "Key" to More Traffic on Your Website?

Have you ever fumbled around in the dark for just the right key to open the door to your car?  Your visitors are looking for you. Don't lock them out by using the wrong keywords. They have children too!It can make a seemingly normally coordinated person turn into completely clumsy one in a hurry- trying to put the wrong key into the lock and not being able to get it open.  Frustrating isn't it?  

Well that's not how you want visitors to your site to feel.  They've likely typed in a phrase or keywords into Google hoping to get the answer to their question and they will feel frustrated if they end up on a page that doesn't have anything to do with what they're looking for. 

For example, if someone types in "Pet Toys" in a search engine and ends up on a site for "pet tricks" they'll leave pretty quickly.  Why?  It's just not what they were looking for.  That's often what happens when people write content but don't include the proper keywords in their blog posts.  We want our blog posts and any pages we write to draw readers who say "Yes! this is exactly what I'm looking for!"-right?

So how can you make sure that what you are writing about in your blog post ends up being read by people who are looking for it?  In a word:  Keywords.

 In the last few blog posts we've gone over writing for the search engines vs. writing for people who actually read your blog and writing searchable yet catchy title tags but now we'll take a moment to talk about how to use keywords in your blog posts to get maximum traffic. 

How to and Tools:

Keyword Research Step 1

Please read SEO for Blogs Part 3:  Double Sided Title Tags That Stick. After you read and do what it says there you should have some nice keywords in your title tags.  Now you're going to take those keywords and put them into a keyword research tool and see what comes up. There are a ton of keyword tools out there.  If you're going to use just one, please use: Google Adwords Keyword Tool

If you want to check out a bunch then here are more on Aaron Wall's SEO Book page: http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools

What you're looking for

These tools will show you not just the popular keywords but keyword modifiers, synonyms and phrasing you may not have thought of. 

Keyword Research Step 2

Unlike a static web page, blogs are more social in nature and often rely on what's new, what's fresh- what people are talking about now.   You need more than just keyword ideas to reflect that.  So how can you find this out?  More tools:

Using your keywords you have researched, do a search on the following sites to see what's going on in the area of what you're writing about:Technorati, Google Blog Search, and Google News. Services like Google Trends and Yahoo! Buzz Index

Now you know what and how people are talking about the ideas and keywords you're targeting.  You can adjust your blog post and the way you use your keywords accordingly.

Putting it all together

Now that you've taken a few minutes to do keyword research how exactly should you use them in writing your blog post?   Let's start with the don'ts:

Don't stuff every keyword known to mankind in your blog posts.   This isn't 1999: the search engines know about this bad technique and could ban you for keyword stuffing.

Don't make you're blog post sound weird or robotic just to get that keyword in there to supposedly rank higher.   Remember, it may be the search engines that crawl your site but it's people who read it.  They just won't hang around, never mind become a regular reader if your posts sound lame and don't have the human touch.  See  the post SEO for blog posts Part 2:  You're Only Human- And That's OK.

Now the Do's:

Use the keywords, synonyms, modifiers and phrases in your posts a few times, but only if it sounds natural like a real person wrote it.  Balance writing well for people with putting these keywords in.

It's really that simple.

Isn't it interesting that you have the key(words) to whether you're blog posts draw people who are searching for your content.  As tempting as it may be to just shoot out a quick blog post, take the five minutes to research your keywords.  The benefits are obvious:  People will find what they're looking for on your blog, and they may become regular loyal readers and continue to return for more.

SEO for Blog Posts: Part 3: Double-Sided Title Tags That Stick

Double-sided tape is handy for sticking a sign to a wall; one side sticks to the sign and the other to the wall.  A nice, simple solution.  But imagine trying to stick a sign to the wall with one-sided tape.  You're going to have a problem:  You can only apply the tape to one thing - the wall or the sign.  

That's the problem with writing title tags for blog posts.  People often make them one-sided.   They either write them for the search engines or for their readers.  But it's better to write for both. 

Make your title tags double-sided and you'll attract both search engines and readers to your blog.  So, what is a title tag?  Should you even care about them?  How do you make them "double-sided, "that is, appealing to both search engines and potential readers?

What is a Title Tag?

Basically, a title tag is a tag inserted in the head section of a web page that is used to tell both search engines and human visitors what the page is about.  A title tag is what shows up in your browser window and tells you what the page you are on is about.

For instance, if you look right now up (way up) above the website address where you can close or open this window, to the left it will say " SEO for Blog Posts: Part 3:  Double-Sided Title Tags That Stick" and then your browser name.  That's the title tag.  And when you search on Google for, say, "broccoli soup recipe" in the search results, all the blue lettering in the search results is the title tags for each particular web page.

Why You Should Care About Title Tags in Blog Posts

1.  Well-written title tags drive traffic to your blog. 

Title tags are still one of the main factors in ranking your web page or blog post.  Search engines love well-written title tags with keywords that are on that same web page.   

Some people just knock out a quick blog post and the last thing on their minds is the title tag.  The good news is that in most blogging platforms adjusting the title tag is as easy as writing the blog post.  Spending a few moments writing a decent title tag will pay off in higher search engine rankings and more clicks from users. 

2.  It's the first thing people see on the search results page in Google.

If you put nothing in for your title tag, it may show up in the search results page as something generic like  "http://yourwebsitename.com/blog/post123".  And no one will click on it because that means nothing to them.   Just like you skip over confusing search results. 

3.  People who like your blog post will often tell other people about it. 

They may send an email to a friend with your blog post title tag in it.  Or they may tweet it on Twitter, and their friends may retweet it to other potential readers.   In addition, you may (and should) have your blog set up to automatically post to your Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.  Finally, if people really love your blog they may subscribe to your feed.  In all cases guess what will show up first?  Your title tag.   

How to Make Your Title Tag Double-Sided

Sticky Side 1:  Write for Humans

You're writing a title tag first and foremost for real Use your title tags to write eye catching "sticky" titles- lke this guy did!people.  Why?  Because when people do asearch on Google, check their Twitter feed, or subscribe to your feed it's the first thing they see.   

So rule #1:   Make that title tag short, sweet, on-topic and catchy in a way that will make some people say, "That sounds cool! I want to read more. "   

For example, if you have a gardening blog and you write a post on moles, you could skip writing a title tag and your title would look generic like this:   “"http://www.yoursitename.com/blog/moles".

Or you could write a title that says something like this:  “Moles:  Friendly Visitor or Gardening Disaster?”  Which might someone click on?  Probably the latter.

Sticky Side 2:  Write for Search Engines

Search engines look carefully at the title tag of each web page, as it helps them to determine if the page is relevant to the searcher.   What does that mean as far as writing title tags?   

If possibl,e have one or two of the main keywords in your title tag.  If your blog post is on the new Nike Air Jordans, you will want to have those three keywords worked into a catchy title (for example, “New Nike Air Jordans:  Best Ever or More of the Same?”).    

 Tip:  Write your title tag, then go over to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.  Put in a couple of the main words in your title tag and see what it comes up with.  You might decide your title tag is fine or you may tweak the phrasing of the title tag a little based on what comes up. 

Miscellaneous tips:   

Google only allows 66 characters (letters, numbers, punctuation and spaces) in the title tag.  So come in under 66 characters or your title will get chopped off. 

Do the above and you'll make your blog posts Double-Sided - sticky to both search engines and people.

Stay tuned for Part 4:  The "Key" to More Traffic on Your Website 

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SEO for Blog Posts: Part 2: You're Only Human- And That's OK

Convenience.  We love that word.  There a lot of things that are automated for convenience that we all enjoy taking advantage of: automatic car washes, cruise control, recording your favorite shows, having your son mow the lawn.  But one thing that cannot be faked is:  You. 

So how does that help in promoting your blog posts and thereby marketing your business?  Well, for better or worse people may be searching for what you wrote in your blog because you wrote it - not like a boring business sales copy or proposal but like you were actually speaking to a person.  And when they find it, they may become your next customer. 

If You Write Robotic Blog Posts Will Smith Will Take You Out

When you write your blog posts, write in a real, human voice.

Sure, you want to target certain keywords, but you need to sound like a person, not a robot that is “trying-to-get-the-best-rankings on Goo-gle.”  (Imagine robot voice).   Why?  Because while Google indexes your site, it's people who are reading the posts you write and people who will decide if they will use your business or become a regular reader of your blog. 

Unfortunately, finding real articles online to solve real problems seems to be getting harder and harder.  Many people are paid to write perfectly search engine optimized articles for large sites with only badly written, superficial articles just to rank the site well to sell advertising.  Ever landed on a site like that? You probably clicked away pretty quickly. 

What's Good for Pinocchio Should Be Good for Your Blog Posts

 It’s kind of like that Disney movie Pinocchio (this may be a stretch).  No, not the lying part.  You shouldn’t lie on your blog posts, that’s obvious.  I mean how he was made of wood but just wanted to be a real boy.  Application:  When you write a blog post, don’t be a piece of wood, be real because people are tired of finding fake, wooden, badly written sites. They are searching for - and they will love it when they finally find - a real, well-written site by an intelligent, funny person who knows what they’re talking about.

When it comes to “real” blog posts, what do people like?

It depends.  They could want an authority on a subject.  Maybe they need empathy for the problem they"re facing.  Perhaps they want someone who will just tell them the honest truth about something.  You can give them that by being yourself, by writing in a human voice to other humans. 

Wait!  You might say.  My blog is about my business which is something that isn’t very empathetic.  I don't have a medical blog that people come to needing compassion or empathy.  I install home theater systems, run a translating business, am an electrician, (insert your business here). 

That might be true, but people are still people and they still react the same way. 

They could be frustrated with trying to choose or set up a home theater system.  So write a post on how it’s frustrating to set up a home theater system and give a few tips to reduce their frustration. Or try writing, "The 5 Easiest Home Theater Systems to Operate," "The Best-Sounding Home Theater Systems Under $1000.00," etc.  When you write blog posts on topics that speak to real people, what will that do?  They’ll hopefully read them and see you as an authority.  They may tell their friends.  They may call or email you and become your customer.  Nice!

Let's take the case of an electrician - what are people often concerned with?  Perhaps finding an honest, reliable electrician that is not smelly, is courteous, friendly, on time and does great work?  Wow, just on those few qualities there’s a few blog posts:  “The Top 5 Things You Should Look For in An Electrician,” “Honest, Reliable Electricians- Do They Still Exist?,” “How Not To Get Ripped Off By An Electrician,” etc. 

Perhaps they came to the website frustrated and, because you wrote like a real person, they feel like someone understands, or - even better - someone who knows their stuff understands, maybe I should call them to do work for me or buy something from their site or sign up for their newsletter because they know what they're talking about. 

In reality, isn’t that the same as when we have a trusted professional we already know do work for us?

We may know our faucet leaks, but to talk to our awesome plumber we’ve used for years and have him give us a few options on what type of new faucets we can replace it with is invaluable.  That’s why we use him - we trust him and he’s the expert.  It’s the same with writing blog posts like a real person in down-to-earth, not sales-y, language.  There’s no substitute for it: we need someone to say, “Yeah, you’ve heard it’s like this and that, but here’s what you need to do and what you need to avoid. “

Yes, acting and writing like a human makes your blog “stick.” People who read it may look at you as their resource and it may drive sales to your business.   So when it comes to writing blog posts: You’re Only Human- And That’s Not A Bad Thing.

Next Time:  Part 3:  Double Sided Title Tags That Stick

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