with Examples: How to Write SEO Page Titles & Descriptions for Photographers

Titles and meta descriptions are used by search engines like Google (or Bing if you’re in the minority of searchers) to display a list of web pages (“Search Engine Result Pages” or better known as “SERPs”) relevant to a query searched by potential website visitors.)

Optimize page titles, descriptions, and content for Google, but write for visitors searching for services like yours. You know, the people who want to give you money.

But why should you spend extra time optimizing title tags and meta descriptions? And how do you write them so your content ranks without sounding like a robot wrote them?

What are Page titles & descriptions?

Title tags and meta descriptions are the page titles and brief descriptions that appear on a search engine’s results page next to a link for a blog post or web page.

You can write specific page titles & descriptions for Google to use for your page or post in the search results.

However, Google could override the titles and descriptions you’ve written with an excerpt from the page/post that better matches the visitor’s search query.

What happens if you don’t write a page title and description?

Google will pull an excerpt from your content but it might not be the most helpful or relevant preview of your content.

Optimize Titles & Meta Description for 2 Main Reasons

For Visitors

Visitors use the page titles and descriptions in the results to find the most relevant result. Any keywords they’re searching that appear in your title or description will appear bold.

For Google

Google (and Bing if you’re into that sort of thing) use this information to help signal a page’s relevance to a visitor’s search.

Why do titles and descriptions matter for SEO?

The titles and meta descriptions are important, not only because they give Google a better idea of what’s on the page, but also because they’re one of the first things people see when visiting your site.

The titles and meta descriptions matter for SEO for two main reasons:

1. Google (and Bing if you’re into that sort of thing) use this information (along with other info from your content and website) to determine a page’s relevance to a visitor’s search.
2. Visitors use the page titles and descriptions in the results to find the most relevant content to click on.

The titles and meta descriptions are the only details besides the link URL (except for an occasional preview image) that display in the search results. And searchers have a lot of results to sift through but often only get as far as the first, MAYBE second, page of results.

The goal of a meta description is to give visitors more info than the page title offers on what they can expect to read about if they click on your page in the search results.

So why does it matter if you use keywords?

Using the target keyword phrase for the page in the meta description isn’t necessary. Google has made it clear that meta descriptions aren’t a ranking factor.

However, Google will highlight keyword phrases that the visitor has searched to help them navigate the search results. So if you can naturally include the target keyword phrase in the description, go for it!

SEO Best Practices for Writing Meta Descriptions

• Limit descriptions to 150 characters, ideally 113 for mobile, (including spaces) or less.
• Write a short, appealing summary of your page or blog post content.
• Try to make it clear what kind of audience would be interested in the content.
• Include target keywords naturally so the phrase will be bold when ranking for that search query.
• If the exact keyword phrase doesn’t sound natural in your description, use a similar keyword phrase.
• Write unique meta descriptions for EACH page.

SEO Best Practices for Writing Page Titles

It can be difficult to balance writing for potential clients and optimizing for Google. While your writing should sound natural, you also want it to be clear to Google and searchers what your content is all about.

• Keep titles concise but descriptive.
• Avoid keyword stuffing or awkward phrases.
• Write unique page titles for each page or post.
• Choose a unique, relevant keyword phrase to target.
• Include target keyword phrase in the page title in a natural way.
• Ideally, the target keywords will be in the beginning of the title.
• Use phrases rather than long sentences.
• Titles should have less than 25 characters.

SEO Writing Tip

When writing a title or meta description, keep in mind that they are usually only seen by potential visitors viewing search results.

My Process for Optimizing Page Titles

When optimizing titles and meta descriptions, it’s important to not over-optimize. The titles and the descriptions should provide a preview of the page topic.

Avoid using “keyword stuffing” tactics or keywords that are irrelevant or barely relevant to the content on the page.

First, write your page title summarizing the content in a short but descriptive phrase. Don’t worry about including the specific keyword phrase right away.

THEN re-read your title to find a natural place for that keyword phrase.

Ideally, you should include your target keyword phrase towards the beginning of the page title. But this isn’t necessary unless the phrase could potentially be cut off on mobile results.

Example of a Target Keyword Phrase:
“Page Titles & Meta Descriptions”

Example of an Optimized Page Title:
“How to Optimize Your Showit Page Titles & Meta Descriptions for Google”

Example of a Quality Meta Description:
“Learn how to write page Titles and Meta Descriptions and optimize them in Showit & WordPress to help your content rank better.”

FAQs (SEO Titles & Descriptions)