Whilst it’s important to know that meta descriptions and title tags will no longer elevate you to the top of the search engine listings, both elements still play a role in building your clickthrough rates and rankings, taking visitors away from competitor sites in the process.
What do you need to focus on to make the most of your efforts? Firstly, remember that descriptions and title tags are there to tell search engines what your site is all about. They are the descriptors that match up user search queries and can provide an advertising hook.
If they are well written and put together, you will see more users clicking through to your site. Find out more here: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/blog/seo-2/a-beginners-guide-to-writing-title-tags-and-meta-descriptions-that-get-clicks/
Title tags
These summarise page content and appear on search engine results, browsers and external sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Titles must be accurate, so that Google doesn’t submit a substitute. Find out more at: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/blog/seo-2/a-beginners-guide-to-writing-title-tags-and-meta-descriptions-that-get-clicks/
Meta descriptions
This is a short summary of the web page content and gives you more space to play with, in order to describe your offer and to encourage users to click through. An SEO company in Dublin can help you with this, such as http://www.rycomarketing.ie/search-engine-optimisation-seo.html.
General good practice tips include:
Introduce urgency and purpose into the copy, especially if you have an offer that is time limited
Use psychological and emotional triggers and focusing on the benefit to the user
Make sure title tags are highly relevant to page content and prioritise key words and phrases
Avoid keyword stuffing and write naturally for visitors
Make each title unique for each page
Use your brand name at the end of a title tag, but focus primarily on the message
Choose a title tag of up to 64 characters
For metas, keep the length at no more than 154 characters.
To choose the right keywords, use an SEO optimiser tool which will give you recommendations that are personalised to your site, offer and goals. This will save you time. Alternatively, you can use the specialist services of an SEO agency. Have a look too at what competitors are using on Adwords.
Remember to review your activity regularly, to measure progress and tweak your activity to best effect. SEO takes time to build up, but your efforts will pay off with a solid, strategic and consistent approach.