As more and more people look to WordPress, Wix, and other deadly platforms to build their own custom websites, it’s important to know that SEO is a super effective tool to make sure that your website gets traffic and gets noticed!
So, what is SEO metadata, anyway? It stands for Search Engine Optimization – so basically organic SEO metadata is what appears on search engine result pages (SERP). It includes the title of the page and its metadescription, which is the descriptive text below the title. Search engines use this description to match website content with the user’s search in order to find what you’re looking for.
SEO metadata tips and tricks
Having SEO is sooooo important for a successful webpage. It has to be reflective of your website’s content to really increase your traffic, and services like Amazon Marketing Services can also help improve the reach your site has.
What makes good SEO metadata?
- It’s unique and incredibly specific to the page.
- Repeating metadata in different posts or pages is a no-no! You want them to be unique and searchable.
- Keywords and phrases should appear early in metadata, ideally as some of the very first words.
- Metadata should be under 150 words and include a call to action.
- Repeat the focus keyword in at least one subheading and throughout the copy 3-5 times.
Here are some helpful hints to help boost your site’s traffic
ProTip: If you upgrade your service from a free version to a paid subscription, through your web hosting site you’ll be able to add more information to your metadata, include more searchable keywords, and get better analytics reviews and reports for your site’s data.
Whether you use a free account or have a paid subscription, these tips and tricks will help draw traffic to your site:
- Add tags. Tags are keywords that relate to your page and your brand. Some tags a travel blogger might use could include:
- Travel
- Airport codes (e.g. YYT)
- Formal or informal state, province, or country codes (e.g. NL, PEI, NY, CND)
- City, town, or municipality names
- Languages
- Airlines
- Hotels
- Landmark names
- Use as many relevant tags associated with your post to help increase your reach.
- Don’t add “#” before them.
- Choose a category best suited to your topic. If you are a fashion blogger, possible categories you might use could include:
- Who Wore it Best?
- Designers
- Accessories
- On the Runway
- Note: Most hosting sites will either provide a list of categories to choose from or will allow you to create your own.
- Divide your site content into readable sections separated by headlines.
- Highlight your site’s intro paragraph and put it in block quotes.
- The quoted text will be where searchable content is found, so make sure your first paragraph contains keywords and searchable items related to your topic.
- Add photos, hyperlinks, videos, quotes, and other multimedia content.
- Add hyperlinks for any internal or external reference, such as:
- Links to partners websites or social media
- Links to relevant news articles
- Links to definitions or Wikipedia pages for reference
- Internal links to other parts of your website
- External links to your own or external social media pages
- Add hyperlinks for any internal or external reference, such as:
- Choose your title wisely.
- Choose something relevant and specific to your topic
- Choose something that is not too common but not too obscure
- If you have published something with a similar topic previously, make sure the titles are not too similar
- Constantly save your progress
- Always preview your page before you publish content and whenever you make any changes, even small ones!
There are lots of great resources out there to help you write good metadata, and these are a few guiding principles that have really helped us out. This is the kind of planning and behind-the-scenes work that my team dedicates to every website we build and manage for our clients. If you are unsure about how your site’s metadata stacks up against your competition, give us a shout and we can take a look, give it a boost, and — as always — help you brand better.
