Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions

[themilann]

How important are MT/MDs actually?

I was wondering what's the best way to write a MT/MD, and as far as I can see, there are a few patterns that most iGaming affiliates use, thus making an atmosphere where every MT/MD looks like the other one.

That said, do you have any idea how to be both user- and SEO-friendly when it comes to this, without losing traffic and trying to be smart and unique?

Thanks

[universal4]

In my opinion while the titles and descriptions are important for the pages, the days of keyword stuffing or the metas being the great be-all, end-all seo strategies and the real rank of the pages resting heavily on what is in them are long gone by 10 maybe 15 or more years.

The titles do have a bit of importance in helping the ctr from the search since it is most often what is shown in the results page itself, however if the title or description poorly matches the actual content or topic of the page, I think it can also be harmful.

Like many seo strategies, it is just one of many factors that should be looked at and approached in a blended fashion.

Rick
Universal4

[themilann]

Thanks for the feedback, Rick.

Yes, SEO is evolving by each passing day and what was useful and required a few years ago is no longer relevant these days.

As you said, MT/MDs (especially MDs) have to be user-friendly too so that people have some benefits of actually reading those.

[chaumi]

Take the two perspectives you mentioned (though they are somewhat interlinked anyway):

SEO (ie what Google wants to see) and User/Searcher Impact/Influence


So for both - IMHO titles are highly important. They have always carried SEO weight and evidence suggests still do, + if your title is crafted/written well (given it's the biggest thing a searcher sees in the results) then it may encourage someone to click on yours rather than the few above it or below it.

Descriptions gets a little muddier.....

From an SEO perspective they're not so important....because often Google doesn't even show them, and instead choose a snippet from somewhere in your content that they feel is appropriate/want to test how it performs. In fact (some) pages can/do rank without having any description filled in at all. Note though....even if they don't show it, the words included may still be working to some extent in helping the search engine understand what your page is about.

But again, if you have a well written, accurate description...and the search engine does choose to actually show it....then it also may get you more clicks over those results around you.


So it's a no brainer doing both as well as you can. There are situations where it might not help, but none (obvious) where it can hurt (other than as Universal said.....if you write a title/description that's misleading for what's on the page. Most likely any adverse impacts of this will be around users clicking expecting an answer to their query, not getting it, clicking away rapidly...which will likely/possibly have negative consequences for your page at some point ie, you are giving signals that it is not answering the searchers query, so why would a search engine want to keep showing it?)

"I was wondering what's the best way to write a MT/MD, and as far as I can see, there are a few patterns that most iGaming affiliates use, thus making an atmosphere where every MT/MD looks like the other one."

Doesn't matter. You obviously don't want to be exactly the same as someone else....and in years of searching I've never seen 2 approximately adjacent same word for word.

But there's a reason many look similar....and that's because they work/adequately describe what's on the page, allied to the fact that you only have a finite number of characters/line size to use.

Focus on that, and put your best effort into writing them as cleverly as possible....and at the same time you should be able to meet both the SEO and user need.


If you're not sure and want to give a page example, you could post it here or PM if you prefer and I'm sure you'll get some feedback which you could then work on/amend to your own style etc




PS Should also recognize...and it's fairly obvious but may be useful to point out ....a poorly written (in other words grammatically incorrect) title or description is highly unlikely to help, and may harm.

[themilann]

Take the two perspectives you mentioned (though they are somewhat interlinked anyway):

PS Should also recognize...and it's fairly obvious but may be useful to point out ....a poorly written (in other words grammatically incorrect) title or description is highly unlikely to help, and may harm.

Thank you for the detailed dissection of this matter. This definitely gives a clearer perspective on how to create a good MT/MD.

[gil.langelaan]

I would say Meta data is still very important for ranking nowadays. But it shouldn't contain only keywords and be user-friendly. It must describe the content on the page.

To be both SEO and user-friendly I think the best formula is to insert the main keyword (1) to the title and the 2nd important keyword to description and make the 3rd important keyword LSI. Additionally use some catchy words or phrases with numbers, symbols, emojis, etc.

That's my vision as a SEO specialist and as a user. Keywords are not only about SEO. It also helps me understand will I find something useful for me on this page or no.

[ddm]

LSI.

Talking out of your ass here.

my vision as a SEO specialist

this is funny. ^ you meant "Blackhat SEO" specialist, right?

[gm2891]

Has anyone noticed any changes? I have.

Google is rewriting title tags for a limited amount of pages in search results, often replacing the text with a page’s H1 tag.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/.../416793/#close

[wonderpunter]

nowadays it doesnt really matter.. i use them for the most important pages however in the results google shows what it wants to show

[gm2891]

I know that some say H tags are not important. However, I prefer to have them and also keep in a logical sequence as it helps their crawler better understand the HTML document. I've tested it on my sites, and that's why I reckon so + it's a general good practice + helps screen reader users understand what BS they are writing about this time.
But of course, others can do anything they like.


Regarding meta titles, I prefer to have them different as H1 but with the same overall meaning, and i've noticed that they've been playing with them lately, as mentioned in the searchenginejournal article. I guess their future goal is to get rid of different gibberish on SERP to make it clearly understandable like a book title.

[bingoreviews]

Title tags, very important, description supposedly has no ranking benefit but huge for converting traffic to you site.

Note - as mentioned above google are displaying what they want at the moment, usually pulling the data from the H1/H2 tags instead, but that doesn't mean they aren't reading the title tag for ranking purposes. Google also seem to be looking at rowing back on that so still optimize titles fully https://www.seroundtable.com/google-...ent-31963.html