Create Compelling Site Titles and Descriptions

There are many places in your HTML you can include keywords, but the Titles and descriptions are arguably the most important elements of your Web site.

These places are not the most important in terms of their ability to improve rankings in the search engines, or in terms of the search engines's algorithm, but are most important in terms of their ability to compel someone to visit your Web site. That is, after all, the ultimate goal of search engine positioning, isn't it? Not a lot of point in attaining a top ranking in a search engine if you are just going to call you site "Shop Here."

Of course, both the title and the description META tag must be compelling, but the Title tag has special relevance, because so many search engines use the title exactly as it appears on your page. Some search engines will use the site description that you give in the META tags, but others will not. For this reason, the title of the site is more important than the site description.

Longer Titles are More Effective

Longer titles build a more compelling reason to visit a Web site. Because it takes a certain number of words to persuade someone to to take action, logic dictates that longer sentences have more opportunity to create that compelling argument. It is difficult to discuss time, money, value, and the problem that the Web site solves in just two or three words.

People often scan headlines in brochures and magazines, even when they don't read all the information. Since the title is usually a hyperlink, it is a different color, and it is generally bold and easier to read than the site's description in the search engine listing. When it is longer, there are more words with which to "hook" a reader. If something catches the reader's eye as they scroll down a list of site titles, they will hopefully read the site description. If you have done your work, they will be hooked.

People Don't Read Text, They Recognize Words

People don't read individual letters after about the time they turn 12 years old; they recognize words. Educators know that people glance at words and recognize the words by the shapes defined by the tops of the letters. If you don't believe it, take a sentence in any newspaper or book and cover the bottom half of the words. You can still read the words with relative ease. Now, cover the top of a different sentence. You will find that words are harder to read because there is not much difference in the shape or line of the bottom of the words. Interesting, but how does this apply here?

Here's how: Since people recognize words because the tops of words vary in height and appearance, then sentences that start with just one capital letter and then lowercase letters are easier to recognize and get read faster.

Words in all caps are hard to read. People don't like to read them and don't read them as easily. Recognizing the words in the sentences is tedious, and these listings are frequently overlooked.