technical seo for the non-techie: html tags

Technical SEO for the Non-Techie

5. HTML TAGS

What are tags?

• Every piece of content on your site is in tags. There are – div tags

– header tags

– paragraph tags

– script tags

– img tags, and more

The tags to pay attention to • Title tag

The tags to pay attention to • Meta description tag

Tags to ignore • Meta keywords tag

– This was an old tag that you could use on sites where you could stuff in a long list of keywords. A lot of people believe that tag is still in use. It is not. At all. If anybody ever tells you Google or Bing use this tag, or that you need to put this tag on your site, fire them immediately.

Why tags matter

• These are how your website shows up in search results

Title tag ~50-60 characters

Meta description ~155 characters

Tag errors

• 4 problems to check – Missing

– Duplicate

– Too long

– Too short

Too long, too short, just right…

• Character limit is for search. • There are loads of reasons you may want longer

title tags and meta tags (i.e. social media) • If you are creating a page that is primarily for

search engine traffic focus on the length. • If it is a page more for social engagement or

email purposes, then don't worry so much about what Google thinks about the title or meta tag.

Too long, too short, just right…

• Character limit is for search. • There are loads of reasons you may want longer

title tags and meta tags (i.e. social media) • If you are creating a page that is primarily for

search engine traffic focus on the length. • If it is a page more for social engagement or

email purposes, then don't worry so much about what Google thinks about the title or meta tag.

Too long, too short, just right…

• Character limit is for search. • There are loads of reasons you may want longer

title tags and meta tags (i.e. social media) • If you are creating a page that is primarily for

search engine traffic focus on the length. • If it is a page more for social engagement or

email purposes, then don't worry so much about what Google thinks about the title or meta tag.

Too long, too short, just right…

• Character limit is for search. • There are loads of reasons you may want longer

title tags and meta tags (i.e. social media). • If you are creating a page that is primarily for

search engine traffic focus on the length. • If it is a page more for social engagement or

email purposes, then don't worry so much about what Google thinks about the title or meta tag.

How to check your tags

• Start by Google’ing your website – What comes up?

– Are they too long?

– Are they too short?

How to check your tags

• Google’s HTML improvements report

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