Driving Traffic to your Web Site with Effective Titles and Descriptions

This is an article by Steve Nye of BrightBuilders – the company that powers my web site builder at www.powersellerbuilder.com.

Building a website with our PowerSeller Builder is easy, but once you have a web site you need traffic.

There are many methods of driving traffic to a web site but the easiest and cheapest is to get organic traffic. What is "organic traffic" you ask? It has nothing to do with fruits and nuts or herbs and compost. It means nothing more than designing your web site in a way that search engines like Google and Yahoo can find you.

The first step is creating page titles and descriptions that are search-engine friendly. So here is an article by Steve Nye – a search engine expert that will show you just how simple this is:

Creating Effective Titles & Descriptions for Your Web Site

Your website's title and description are the most important factors when preparing your site for search engine registration. Not including a title for your web page is similar to publishing a newspaper without a headline. The title not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears when potential customers perform a search in a search engine and review the results. The description is equally important, as its purpose is to entice customers to click once the title has their attention.

In this discussion, please understand that we are referring to your web page title and description, not your company or position title/description. We are referring to the actual title and description of your web page, as defined by the title and meta name HTML tags.

Where are the Title & Description?

These tags are in the HTML code in the <HEAD> tag near the top of the document. You can see them by pulling down the View>Source command on your browser.
They look like this:

<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Page's Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Your Site's Description Here">
</HEAD>

You can access the title and description through the Builder in the Edit Web Pages section.

Choose the page you want to edit.
At the top of the screen, you will see a link for Edit Page Information. This is where you can change your title and description.

Important Note: Some search engines do not use the description tag. Instead, they index the first 30-40 words of your site or the text around the keyword phrase being searched and use that as your description. For this reason, you should plan a well-rounded strategy for achieving high search engine rankings. This series is designed to help you create this type of strategy.

Tips for Writing Titles and Descriptions

Think of your title and description as an advertising campaign and spend as much time writing an effective title and description as you would writing an important ad.

Include Your Researched Keywords: To have a realistic chance of being listed on search results for certain keywords, make sure those keywords are used in your titles and descriptions. This is because when a search is requested through a search engine, the search engine gives highest priority to the words within the title tag. Since each page of your website can have its own unique title, it is vital for you to customize each page with its own keyword-rich title, focusing on just one keyword phrase per page.

Tip: Do not use keywords multiple times in the same title or description tag.

Evoke Emotion: Don't make the mistake of using just your company name for the title or stuffing keywords in the title with no other emotional pull. Your web page's title MUST grab attention, create curiosity, and evoke emotion. Pay close attention to TV and radio news programs and how they use short "hooks" to keep viewers and listeners through a commercial break. The same "hooks" can be used for your title and description.

Use Compelling Words: What words are compelling? We have compiled a short list of compelling words to choose from: bold, breakthrough, magical, revealing, accomplish, favorite, security, save, stunning, personal, outrageous, you, announcing, warning, secrets, enormous, love, best, earn, more, wealth, protect, dazzling, exciting, incredible, free, fear, imagine, succeed, gain, money, sale, stunning, rare, how-to, proud, health, prosper, future, easy, extreme, and fate.

Make Titles Short: Shorter titles are more effective than longer ones because web surfers scan the words on a search result page—they don't read them.

Avoid Search Engine "Tricks": There are many "tricks" out there to allow you to have more than one title tag, a title longer than the maximum 78 characters, and multiple descriptions. We advise against these methods because search engine criteria and algorithms change frequently. Unless you are keeping up-to-date on the latest changes, what may be legal today could draw a penalty tomorrow. This is a case where trying to be clever or out smart the search engine can actually hurt you.

Make Sure You Can Support Your Claims: Make sure you can back up any claims you make in your title and description. If you can't, you may be sued. Recently a large online site was sued for stating they were "The Worlds Largest Bookstore." They weren't. They were sued and they lost.

Use Capitalization Wisely: Do not use ALL CAPS. They are difficult to read and are considered "shouting" on the Internet. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word (when appropriate).

Make Titles under 78 Characters: Generally, your title should be 78 characters or less (including spaces). We prefer short, crisp titles. Some search engines only display a maximum of 78 characters, so by following this guideline, you are assured your title will not be cut off.

Examples

Your title and description will be the catalyst for traffic coming to your website. Just because your site ranks at the top of the search engine results does not necessarily mean you will receive the most traffic of the sites listed in the results. In fact, if your title and description are more compelling than your competitor's title and description, you can attract more traffic than the #1 listed website in terms of referred traffic.

Effective Title Example: For a Corporate Help Desk, instead of using the title: "XYZ Corporation—Corporate Help Desk," use "Corporate Help Desk: Meeting Core Business Demands, Keeping Users Productive." This title is more effective because it incorporates the main solutions the service provides.

Effective Description Example: "Meeting your core business demands and keeping your users productive is your top priority. It is ours too. Allow us to be your Corporate Help Desk with guaranteed response times and high-quality service."

Search engines do not alphabetize the results, so refrain from using symbols such as "!!" or "AAA" in your title. Place your most important keyword in this tag, but keep it readable and descriptive, with an emotional pull. Don't just make your title a list of keywords.

Poor Title Example: For "Hawaiian Vacations," one website's title is: "windsurfing vacations lodging Maui budget accommodations Hawaiian vacation ren." This title fails because it's not only unappealing, but also doesn't read well; therefore, few will click on this site, even if it's listed as #1. The last word, "ren," is actually "rental," but was cut off, as the title was longer than the search engine allows.

Suggested Title: "Hawaiian Windsurfing Vacations in Maui—Budget Lodging Available." Result: A shorter, more effective and descriptive title.

Don't Use Two Titles for One Web Page

Although using more than one title on a page is allowed on some search engines, others (including Google) will heavily penalize you. For this reason, the Builder does not allow more than one title. Our programmers receive the latest changes to the major search engines from our marketing department, making our web builder one of the most search-engine-friendly builders on the market.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Read your finished title and description and ask yourself:

Are my title and description compelling?
Do they solve a problem?
Do they suggest that my product or service solves that problem quickly?

If you answered "no" to any of the above questions, you may need to rewrite your title and/or description. The bottom line is, when a search is performed on a search engine, two elements are displayed in the results list—the website's title and description. And based on that title and description, your website may be welcoming potential customers—or turning them away.