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Optimize Meta descriptions

Your Meta descriptions provide information to search engines. When showing the content of your pages on the search engine it will take the information on the META tags.

When you add content to an item (page, blog post, new event) think about completing the portion under the tab Search engine optimization (SEO) that can be found at the bottom of the pages when editing from the manager.

 

The Meta title

 

By providing a Meta title, when doing a search for your site or content this is the title that will appear in a clickable link and also what will appear in the tabs on the top of the screen. Do not confuse the Meta title with the title of your page.

Your page title appears at the top of the page with content following, whereas your Meta title appears in the title bar of your navigator as well as the title of the link in search engines. The title of the page must be different from the Meta title.

The Meta title is important to your SEO and ideally is :

  • unique : do not have the same title on each page.
  • concise and explicit : choose a title that sums up your content the best. For page titles, don't use "welcome to my page" or "untitled" or even "price page" etc...
  • short : this is the title that will appear in the search engine results, and if too long it will be cut off, which could lead to confusion.

Resume : the title shouldn't be a list of keywords but a unique sentence that is descriptive and brief. If you do not add a title, the page title is used in the search engines.

The Meta description

 

This portion is displayed beneath your title in the search engine. The description should be a short phrase picked with care. Again, don't insert a list of all the keywords! Instead describe your page with a simple sentence.

Your Meta description does not play a role in the position on the search engine lists, but it can be the reason that surfers click on your link over another competing sites. A well-placed and well-worded description will encourage visitors to choose your links over others.

If you do not place in an SEO description, Google will choose for you from the content on your page. This randomly generated sentence is not always pertinent.

Meta keywords

 

The keywords should be clear as you insert your content in the pages (the words that internet users are likely to type when searching for your site on the search engine). You can insert up to ten keywords. You should separate them by a comma mark.

It is no longer acceptable to put a list of your keywords in the section titled Seach Engine Optimisation. This will not be used in the Google search engine based nor accepted by the Googles algorithms. So be sure to differentiate the keywords from the Meta description.

So why would you use keywords if not useful to Google? The Meta keywords are still used by other search engines (like Bing) also by directories. The keywords are used also when using the internal search engine by content.

The URL address

 

The URL address is automatically created for you, it is created based off the title of the add-on, category, and the other elements you choose. You can modify the URL address easily by clicking on the lock symbol next to the link.

The URL is not the most important part of SEO but you should be paying close attention. If your URL is unique and formed by keywords it is better. All spaces are automatically filled with a hyphen. As your links will be shared, it is better that they are short and clear.

Attention, if you edit the URL of an existing page that has been indexed on a search engine or shared on social networks. Think to redirect your pages to they do not fall on 404.

The illustrative image

 

The illustrative image is displayed in certain search engines but also as the reference image on social networks. It is also used to display your pages in lists or you can choose to display it on the page as well.

So use the illustrative image to its potential and better your SEO!

Conclusion

The Meta fields are not enough to guarantee you to be the first result on the search engines, nothing truly can ! You should not think only of completing the fields but you should also concentrate the quality of content.

Even if this is not the most essential process of your site's SEO, you should systematically fill out your Search Engine Optimisation fields. This portion allows you to use the internal search engine and even to present the category lists.