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Making Use of the META Title and Description Tags

While the use of META keywords has been largely criticized, and is now no longer necessary, the use of other META tags is still extremely valuable. Namely, using META title and META description tags is great for SEO. You can significantly improve your rankings and your overall SEO efforts by using these tags, and using them properly on all of your websites. Take a look at these instructions for how to make the most out of the META title and description tags.

Before taking a look at these rules, it’s first important to go back to the META keywords issue for a moment. As mentioned, their usage and value has been criticized and questioned for years. Now, both Google and Yahoo! have publicly stated that they don’t even use META keywords for your webpage’s ranking. That means you shouldn’t use them either, and you should quit wasting your time with them.

The META title and description tags still remain extremely valuable however in terms of your overall SEO. For your META title, it’s the title that a browser sees when they make a search and see your page listed. It’s also of the utmost importance for making your site be seen as important for a search in the eyes of the search engines themselves.

One of the best strategies for quick ranking and results with SEO therefore is to include a few of your best keywords into your META title. This will help you get associated with those terms, and will help you target some of those terms you used to just jot down in the META keywords tag. However, you have to realize that your title needs to be kept to a minimum length. That length is generally viewed to be 65 characters or less, because more than that will get cut off and ignored.

Moving onto the META description tag for SEO purposes, it is also a fantastic spot to put some of those keywords that you used to write down in your META keywords tag. You’ll have more room to work with in your description, generally up to 160 characters. This will allow you to write a short sentence or two to describe your page and once again include a few of your targeted keywords and phrases.

As mentioned with the META tile tag, the length is of extreme importance with the description tag as well. Anything more than 160 may be overlooked and will only hurt your appearance. So be sure to get to your point quickly, and to include a few phrases without being repetitive or spam like by stuffing one after another in there.

A few years ago many people relied heavily on the use of the META keywords tag. It’s official now though that it is no longer of value. So switch your focus to the META title and META description tags for SEO. You can still include your most important keywords and you’ll go a long way towards improving your ranking and the results you see with SEO.

About the Author

Nicholas Halmond is a search engine marketing specialist and a rep from Rank Fast. If you would like to learn more about SEO visit SEO Services.

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