Title, Description, Keywords - these terms confuse every budding blogger and internet entrepreneur.

I remember once when I searched the meaning of these words on Google. After reading dozens of articles and doing a lot of experiments, I studied meta tags in the smallest detail.

As a result, having learned how to correctly compose meta tags for my blog, I was stunned by the results (without exaggeration).

In this article, I'll save you some time by learning what meta tags are, why they are needed, and how to compose them correctly.

But there is another side of the coin: overspam of this tag. Remember, your headline is written for people first.

⛔ An example of an unsuccessful Title:

How to travel to Asia fast cheap tickets travel packages China Japan

✅ An example of a good Title:

How to travel to Asia: all the details including tickets, accommodation, food

👍 Ideal:

How to travel to Asia and not regret it (tickets, accommodation, etc.)

Secret # 2. Intrigue

Your headline should not only contain search terms, but also generate a keen interest in people.

The logic is simple:

The more intriguing your title, the more people will come to your site. Seeing interest from users, search engines will start to raise its position. The higher the site is in the SERP, the more successful it is.

Impressive statistics: The top three organic sites receive 61.5% of all conversions. Therefore, try to get into the top three, not the top ten.

But how do you write a really catchy Title?

Here are some tips:

1. Add numbers and percentages to the title. For example: 10 Tips how to ...; 5 Reasons Why ...; Top 3 ...
2. Use the following adjectives and adverbs: Effective, Cool, Incredible, Custom, Like, Step by Step, Simple, Easy, Fast.
3. Try to make people feel strong when reading your headline.

Most importantly, take the time to write attractive headlines. Always remember the words of the "father of advertising" David Ogilvy:

After I wrote a more intriguing title for an article on plugins, the search clickthrough rate went up dramatically:

Secret # 3. Ideal length

Your title should not exceed 60 characters. Otherwise, search engines will cut it off at the 61st letter on their own.

Ideal: stick to a range of 50 to 60 characters.

A headline that is too short looks unconvincing in most cases.

Compare yourself:

How to add a Title tag

WordPress sites have one interesting detail:

The title of the article is automatically duplicated in Title. If you really want to increase website traffic, you need to compose the page title yourself.

Blogging, making money on the Internet, blog monetization.

Now you know literally everything about meta tags and are one step closer to success. If you think this article might be useful to others, please share it on social media.

Often a person stumbles upon articles of almost the last century, after reading which, he certainly begins to draw conclusions. One of the most common objections from clients (any studio) is the question of an empty field... The client is interested in how it happened that the tool with the loud name "keywords" was left blank, and why then do we need keywords in the admin panel of the site. In this article, we will "sing" the requiem for the keywords.

What are keywords for?

About 15 years ago, keywords were one of the determining factors for your site to reach the TOP. It was enough to write adequate text, add keywords to it and fill in all the meta tags. We have already analyzed the title and description in other articles, which means that we will not touch them here.

So, all the phrases that could determine the relevance of the page to a specific query were entered in the keywords field. For example, you have a website about the sale of plastic windows, and you wrote a text on the main page, inserted a couple of keys there and filled in the meta tags:

And we admired how the site is increasing its positions. But it was a long time ago.

Why keywords don't work

It's very simple: along with honest webmasters, there were also cunning ones. They found a way to manipulate the search engine results, whose naivety at the time was really like a puppy. After the manipulators began to saturate keywords with an infinite number of keys, which sometimes had nothing to do with the topic of the document, a really huge influx of visitors to the site was obtained.

But, as could be expected, users on the site did not linger and remained dissatisfied with the results of the search engine as a whole, undermining its reputation. Then keywords became a real headache, after which the decision was made to reduce its relevance, and later to completely reduce to "well, maybe we'll see, or maybe not," according to Matt Cutts, head of anti-spam at Google, 2009.

Yandex says the same in its help "to help the webmaster":

And in the video of Denis Nagorny (watch from 22 minutes):

As a result, all SEOs came to the conclusion that keywords will not help you promote your site.

Sanctions for keywords

In general, if you fill in the keywords correctly, it will not be worse, but better too. There are webmasters who fill out this meta tag to this day and are happy with themselves. The only caveat lies in the correct filling, if you overdo it, expect trouble. Search engines will definitely notice this and downgrade your page, or even the entire site, in the search results.

How to fill in keywords correctly

If you do decide to fill out, you need to know something. In order not to be punished for using keywords, you need to be careful with it, as is the case with the title and description. Stick to standard rules and search pessimization will bypass you:

1. Eliminate overspam. Using dozens of keywords can negatively affect the promotion of your website. 2-3 keywords will be enough.
2. Uniqueness. Keywords must be unique for each page, just like other meta tags.
3. Punctuation marks. Separate keywords with commas. Do not write them in solid text.
4. Keys must be relevant to the page and used in the text.
5. Do not use keywords on service information pages. Like contacts or feedback.

How to use keywords today

All inscribed keywords in the keywords field are considered a regular text key.

In general, if your text already contains this key, for example, “order pizza in Moscow”, then there is no particular point in duplicating it in the keywords field as well. Some time ago, it was possible to use this meta-tag by entering the names of companies of your competitors into it and, possibly, appear in the search results for their brand queries. But now this is impossible, well, or extremely unlikely, because search engines have a host of other, more important tools that are much more difficult to fake, influencing the search results.

The only sane excuse for filling in keywords is the constantly changing algorithms of search engines. What was unimportant may become relevant again. And if this happens, webmasters who fill keywords will be in some plus, because they will not have to urgently fill out this meta-tag for thousands of their pages, everything will already be spelled out. And if you decide to follow their example, but do not know to How to use keywords, be be careful not to harm your resource.

Meta keywords: output

Meta tags are quite an important factor in site ranking. The only exception today is keywords, a meta tag created in 1995 to list keywords that popular search engines like Google and Yandex do not respond to. In a situation where you are limited in time, it is better to give preference to title and description. If you do decide to add keywords, you need to know how to fill in keywords correctly and follow the rules. Otherwise, you are more likely to harm your site than help.

I prepared this material for beginners in SEO, as well as for site owners who do not know how to fill in meta tags correctly. Consider what is currently relevant and what is no longer used by the search engine when ranking the site.

Let's start by defining what are meta tags?

Meta tags are (X) HTML tags designed to provide structured metadata about a web page. Typically indicated in the tag header (X) HTML document. Meta tags are not displayed on the page and have no visible content. They contain additional information for search robots, various software.

In SEO, when we hear something like “We need to register meta tags on the page”, the Description and Keywords meta tags immediately pop up in our head, and, of course, Title. What's SEO without this tag? I'll start right away with them.

Title tag

It is also called the Title meta tag, although, from a technical point of view, it is not. A very important tag that affects ranking is the title of the page and is often used by search robots when forming the title of a snippet. Therefore, in addition to the fact that you need to add the main keywords to the Title, it is important to monitor its attractiveness. It should encourage users to go to the site.

Title must:

1. Display the essence of the page.
2. Close to the beginning, contain a direct occurrence of the most competitive query.
3. Be a readable sentence with keyword entry.
4. Differ from the page title

   .

5. Do not contain spam.
6. Be unique for every page.
7. The approximate length is about 70 - 130 characters.

For landing pages, categories, sections, I recommend filling in the Description manually.

You can automatically fill in the Description, for example, for product cards. To do this, use templates of the form:

Description: In our online store + “store name” + affordable prices from + “price” + to + “product card name” + delivery to + “city”.

Description: “Product card name” + at an affordable price + “price” + from an online store + “store name” + with delivery + “city”.

How not to do:

1. Don't make your Descriptions too short - short meta descriptions are visible in the HTML Optimization section in Google Search Console.
2. Track and correct duplicate Descriptions there (they must be unique).

1. Don't write inconsistent phrases - the meta tag must be readable. Don't use enumerations.

Meta Keywords

This meta tag does not affect the ranking, but since Yandex writes that meta keywords can be taken into account, I recommend filling it in by adding 3-5 phrases that are relevant to the content, separated by commas.

Expires meta tag- also used to control caching. The date is set in the meta tag. When it passes, the browser should use the repeated network request, not the existing page cache. The date is in RFC850 format.

Usage example:

Content-language meta tag- indicates the language of the document.

Usage example:

In HTML5, specifying the language is simplified:

I tried to list, as it seemed to me, the most interesting meta tags. If you are interested in other meta, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the materials: Meta tags that are supported by Google and Using HTML elements Yandex.

Let's sum up

There are a lot of meta tags, but as an optimizer, most often you have to use the Title tag, meta description, meta keywords in SEO. If you are a beginner SEO or a site owner, I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the webinar “Rules for the formation of Title and Description” of our SEO-TeamLead Evgeny Aralov:

Subscribe to the newsletter

I'll show you right away results that are achieved through SEO promotion and a unique method, and partially covered in this article:

Query metrics and the page that I will describe in this article

Yandex-Wordstat indicators

Based on the screenshot, we can see that the frequency of requests:

• laser tag - 13,602 impressions (2,770 exact number of impressions in "")
• laser tag in Moscow - 2035 impressions (1155 exact number of impressions in "")
• laser tag in Moscow for children - 347 impressions (50 exact number of impressions in "")

Total website traffic:

The total website traffic averages 700 people per month.

Positions in Yandex (in Google + - the same picture of the photo)

For a good understanding of what needs to be done, I will show everything on the example of an already optimized page of the site of one of the. Here is the site itself - https: //forpost-club.rf.

Manual collection of the semantic core (video tutorial)

Page content (page text)

I optimized the main page for 3 key queries:

1. Laser tag
2. Laser tag in Moscow
3. Laser tag in Moscow for children

The text of the page that promotes it - I circled in red. In this case, I moved it down. it does not play a key role and is only needed for search robots. Above or below it is not important. The text that describes the page should be at least 90% unique throughout the entire Internet, better than 100%.

The uniqueness of texts and descriptions can be checked with a free program - https://www.etxt.ru/antiplagiat/ Antiplagiat. It works simply - download the program, add the desired text to it and click check.

After checking, the program selects non-unique text, which you must replace or rewrite in other words.

The text does not need to be solid. Break the text into paragraphs of several sentences. If possible, mark the text with a list (for a pleasant perception.)

All texts with which you work first of all need to be written for people, and secondly for search engines.

Correct compilation of the heading H1, H2

When writing texts, you need to use headers like h1, h2, h3. With their help, we optimize the page and make the text readable.

The first thing a user pays attention to when he gets to a page is headers.

Headings can be generally any length (even a couple of lines), but they must be catchy. It is also important that the headings h1 and h2 contain the keyword.

In the picture below, I have shown where on the page these headers are located.

SEO image optimization

Further, for a good visual perception and search engine optimization - we add a picture to our content. Again, it doesn't matter if the picture is at the top or bottom, the main thing is that it be optimized and preferably unique.

If you look at the source code of the page, then our picture contains 2 tags: title and alt:

Wordpress processed the code of the picture and it became not working, so do not copy it. the purpose of this code is to show you what you need to register and how.

These are the tags we use to optimize the image. These title and alt tags contain our keywords. Ideally, they should be completely repeated without declensions and changes.

Search engines consider a certain number of characters for image tags. For Google, the limit is 16 words, for Yandex - 28 words.

Important: descriptions for pictures must also be unique throughout the Internet.

Meta data

This is what the user sees in the search results before getting to your site.

Below is a screenshot with metadata already filled in. In my case, the site engine is WordPress, and the module for filling in the meta tags is WordPress SEO by Yoast. Your field may be different. (it is not so important which module to fill in the meta data, the main thing is to fill it in correctly!)

And now, in order:

Focus Keyword- our assistant in optimization. It allows you not to forget anything. Focus Keyword: this is the place where we write the keyword for which we plan to optimize the page. In my case, I chose the key query - laser tag. But I optimized the meta tags for all 3 keywords. They are also repeated in tags.

Correct title

SEOtitle: he is also Title - one of the most important elements that a search engine takes into account when ranking. It should contain the keyword 1 time, for which we optimize the page. In my case, it will contain 3 keywords:

1. Laser tag
2. Laser tag in Moscow
3. Laser tag in Moscow for children

On the page I am giving as an example, the title tag is - Laser tag in Moscow for children and adults- short and informative, contains all the necessary keywords and displays the essence of the site.

P.S. We managed to optimize this page for 3 keywords thanks to tails (I talked about them earlier.)

Correct Description

Meta description: aka Description - the description of the page that the search engine will use the description. It is he who is read by users, reviewing the search results and deciding whether to open the site or not.

Sometimes the Description in the search engine is different from the one we indicated.

The Description tag should also contain the keyword 1 time, for which we will optimize the page.

Important: the description must be unique across the entire Internet.

Meta keywords- aka Keywords - here we indicate the keyword for which we are optimizing the page. I have indicated 1 key request that contains all the tails.

Page optimization checklist

This list serves as a checklist for page optimization. Follow all points for correct SEO settings.

Page content

• A unique text that must contain the keyword at least 1 time with an exact match. (and no more than 7)
• the text must be unique across the entire Internet
• the text must be at least 2,500 characters
• the text must be readable and must contain the heading h1 and subheadings h2, h3

Picture

• A picture with the prescribed title and alt tags, which must contain a keyword or words with an exact match. That is, without declensions and changes.
• No more than 16 words.
• Descriptions are unique.

Tagtitle

• If possible, make it unique.
• Length no more than 70 characters

TagDescription.

• Must contain a keyword.
• Must be unique.
• Length no more than 156 characters

Output

Filling in the SEO parameters, going through step by step, performing all items which are necessary for and your requests will undoubtedly fall into the TOP of search results and begin to bring customers from the Internet.

P.S. If you have there are still questions You can ask them to me personally through the feedback form.

Bonuses to readers

50% discount on taking an individual course on SEO promotion 1 to 1 with me personally. The current price is indicated on the course page -

In order to take advantage of the discount, add to my skype belov222105, and send a message: I want to learn CEO. My promo code is SEO2020.

This article will be of particular interest to novice webmasters. They should not only be able to design site pages and fill them with materials, but also write the necessary meta tags. Similar tags are also used by developers when promoting video clips on YouTube and other interested parties.

General concept

From a huge number, you can choose the main meta tags: Title, Description, Keywords. The first contains the title, the second contains the page description, and the third contains the main keywords by which the site is promoted. From the above list, it becomes clear that the Meta Keywords tag is, in fact, user requests. It combines all the most significant key phrases.

Role in website promotion and search engine optimization

To understand its significance, you need to recall the distant 90s, when there was only one main factor in the ranking of web resources for all search robots. Back then, it was not yet possible to turn into reality the amazing idea of ​​Larry Page (one of several founders of Google Corporation) to use Page rank to determine the Internet pages that match the query entered by the reader in the search field.

Accordingly, the system simply analyzed the article for the presence of phrases specified by the user. control over the density of keys in the text was carried out. The content of the tags was examined with great passion, in particular, attention was paid to such an element of the page as the Keywords tag.

History of appearance

Special tags (meta), coined by Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web, in 1989, allowed the author to communicate information about the content, title, and keywords of an article to a search engine. Moreover, Title did not become a meta-tag, unlike Description and Keywords. They were registered in a special container Head, which did not display the information specified in it in the blocks of the site. The Meta Keywords tag was originally designed to ease the hard work of search engines to identify web pages that matched a user's request. Nowadays, everything has changed.

Sad Consequences: The Meta Keywords Tag Doesn't Affect Rankings

What was supposed to be beneficial began to turn into harm. The existing harmony was soon destroyed by the sudden competition for top SERPs (traffic came only from the first page of the search for any queries). The site owner's benefit has become directly dependent on the availability of the resource in the top.

Unscrupulous site developers started spamming with keywords in the field in which the Keywords tag should be specified. Search engines could not be guided by such an easily cheated parameter. completely lost their meaning. It should be borne in mind that search engines have already solved the existing problem a long time ago. The developers of the companies answered the questions of the webmasters in an interview.

Google Corporation announced in 2001 that it would not take into account the words spelled in this meta tag when ranking sites. The Yandex company did not give such an unambiguous answer to the events, emphasizing that the keys can be taken into account by the robot. Experts conducted an experiment. A non-existent word was included in the page tag. Only the Yahoo search engine could find it. From this we can conclude that other companies have already decided on their attitude to the tag. One can hope that someday the search engines will reconsider their decision, but they are not going to change the policy for the next ten years.

Interim findings

You can summarize. Should I include the Meta Keywords tag? What will it give when promoting the project? Definitely, he stopped influencing the promotion in any way. The belief that filling in all the fields of information about a page is the key to successful promotion has long lost its meaning. Moreover, if the keywords are incorrectly selected, the Keywords tag can cause the owner's site to fall under the filter. Search engines still punish negligent developers for spam. Therefore, you should indicate only those phrases that are most often found in the text.

Meta Keywords tag: how to fill it in correctly

Actually, if a developer creates a site on a modern engine (CMS), then he is not required to go into details and understand this. It is enough just to enter the required data into the proposed fields, and the system will insert it in the right place by itself.

If the webmaster creates a statistical resource in the Html language or acquires some initial knowledge about sites, then he needs to know the syntax of the Keywords tag.

The exact number of characters included in this meta tag is also important. Most sources indicate a different number of letters, while emphasizing that the main thing is to choose the right keywords, and then this problem will become of secondary importance. However, the experience of the developers proves that not everything is as simple as we would like it to be. Observance of the exact occurrence of search queries in the articles on the page and their certain sequence requires a considerable investment of time.

When counting the number of characters, search engines take into account the spaces entered in the tags. The letters can be counted using the usual Microsoft Word program (data are indicated in statistics) or convenient online services. The most famous services will be included in the search results. Still, it's worth returning to the topic. Next, you can see the base of the tag.

Sample writing in code

It looks like this:

Example:

In no case should the keys be simply separated by a space! Each word must be separated by a comma. The meta tag is only 200 characters long. You can specify both ordinary words and phrases. They should also meet on the page. Repetitions of words are permissible, but do not get carried away with them, 2 identical nouns are enough. If the topic is too long, then it is better to split the information into several articles. The resulting texts should be placed on different web pages. Then the wizard will have the opportunity to select many more keywords for each separate part of the article. At the same time, he will be able to achieve maximum coverage of topics with search queries.

What else can a well-formed Keywords meta tag serve? It helps to understand the site. For example, if a developer buys links that are offered by the GoGetLinks and GetGoodLinks perpetual link exchanges, then he may not waste time creating a specific anchor (link text) for the URL. When the meta tag is complete, the wizard simply copies the text from there, avoiding the tedious work of writing down new information.

Secrets of writing a tag

There are several tricks that experienced craftsmen use. Do not include more than 7 words or phrases in the tag. Quality has always exceeded quantity. It is better to use phrases than simple common words. If you specify low-frequency keywords, then you can also advance in the search results by them. The more specific the request, the more likely it is that the target audience will visit the site. Do not use conjunctions, prepositions, interjections and particles in this tag. Perhaps the phrase will become clearer for the user, but it should be noted that he still will not see the fruit of such efforts. Therefore, when writing key queries, it is better to focus not on readers, but on search engines.