Comments on: SEO Advice: How-To Write Unique, Effective Meta Descriptions & Page Titles…and Why the Meta ‘Keyword’ Tag Doesn’t Matter

By: KRONiS

KRONiS — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:57:58 +0000

Jim,

When it comes to branding, you can brand EVERY page with the title at the end of the keyword and explanatory sentence. even though the title will be cut off somewhere between 58-65 characters in the snippet, anything you put AFTER that will still show up in the browser at the top, so people will get the ‘branded’ message. i.e.

[keyword-phrase] [more info about it up to 65 chars] - http://www.yoursite.com

however, for what you are doing I would put this:

Quit Smoking:Free Smoking Cessation Classes in Rockland County,NY

mind you that is with no research on your site or even visiting yet.

Aaron

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:25:20 +0000

Great article. Quick question for you on page titles: Is it important to include the name of the website and the page name before all the other good stuff? It seems logical to do this, but eats up a lot of the available characters.

Below is an example of how we’ve been doing it. Based on your story, should we skip right to the word Rockland? Any thoughts or experience on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Put It Out Rockland > Our Programs: Rockland County New York Quit Smoking Program. Free Smoking Cessation Classes. Free Nicotine Replacement Products.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:46:26 +0000

Interesting points to consider. Well done.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:58:43 +0000

Thanks for the character numbers in the meta description. Good to know!

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:18:07 +0000

Good information! I definitely learned stuff I didn’t know before.

By: Gabriel Peratla

Gabriel Peratla — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:17:07 +0000

This article is awesome! I can use this to show how the smallest things can make a significant impact, such as page titles. I see this problem with 75% of the sites I come across on a daily basis!

Good write Aaron!