How to use a Meta TITLE Tag

Search engine spiders index billions of websites and an estimate that was in around the 11 billion range in 2005 has grown to around 44 billion depending on which search engine are being used for the counts. Google is probably the easiest to get included in while Alexa is probably the hardest based on my experience.

You may be thinking right now that you donât care how many websites there are you just want yours to be noticed but it is important to understand the process in order to reach your goals of being found first.

Meta tags are used by search engines to sort of gather a brief summary of what you page is about or what it consists of. The TITLE tag is probably the most important Meta tag you can use for your website.

Failure to use Meta tags leaves your site being discovered only by chance, sharing from people you pass it along to or through mass amounts of advertising.

Here are some examples of sites that may not want to use Meta tags to be discovered by search engines:

1. A local church website that doesn’t want outside attention

2. A members only site that isn’t open to the public

3. A personal website intended for family members and close friends

4. An admin zone of a website used for backend work or employee access.

These are examples of sites that should be using Meta tags to get their sites indexed:

1. E-Commerce sites – even if you have a brick and mortar business and just want to add convenience to your local customers you need to get your site indexed by search engines.

2. Sites about musicians, artists, actors/actresses or other individuals or groups that have a special talent would want to make sure that their site is found by search engines.

3. News channels, event planners, marketing and other informative sites.

4. Creative writing or photo gallery sites that provide lots of content about topics that would interest many people.

There are several hundred in depth SEO (Search Engine Optimization) advice websites out there with their own versions of how to optimize your website. Before you can write your Meta TITLE Tags you need to evaluate your needs. Start by asking yourself these types of questions:

1. KISS please! KISS = Keep it simple for a stranger (Not what you was thinking I bet!).

2. Ask yourself these questions to develop the right method

a.) Do you know who your target audience is yet?

b.) Is your product already popular or are your idea(s) widely known about?

c.) Do you have a substantial budget to get your website off the ground?

d.) Has your website been around a while and just isn’t getting indexed the way you thought it should?

1. Avoid commas or many other symbols other than the “-“ dash or “|” pipes to separate words if needed. Experts recommend both types depending on their style but I prefer pipes.
2. Think short and to the point but not just listing keywords. There is a place for keywords and this isn’t it. Placing them here may make the search engine spider(s) interpret them as keyword spamming or stuffing.
3. A short relative term is best for a title. You can add your website as well but not as an actual link so you might put example.com but not the "a href..." code that you use when linking.

Do you use the pipes or dash for a separator?

To help you understand the options you should know that these examples are based on a real website: HNG Wholesale. The platform is e-Commerce therefore the goal is to bring an audience of consumers that hopefully will turn into customers. The only ships to the United States and Canada. The products on this site are a large variety of home and garden decor. The site’s goal is more Business to Business wholesale but also caters to retail customers as well.

I will be using the Pipes separator because it is my preference however you can use other types of separators. A warning for all methods when using words that often use the accent symbol such as de`cor or decor. If you write your code in certain editors or word it will auto correct to décor with the accent and search engines do not process these very well.

Home Page | HNG wholesale – This is a poor example because it just states the obvious if you visit the site but nothing about this title would make me visit the site.

HNG Wholesale Home Page – This was very popular two decades ago and when internet was gaining ground but since it has exploded you need to really set yourself apart.

Home and Garden Decor | HNG Wholesale – This one is a little better than the last. I still don’t feel like it would bring me to the website.

Wholesale Home & Garden Decor | Home Page | HNGWholesale.com РIt is starting to get better if the audience is wholesale home and garden d̩cor. I think it is important that if you are going to include your website name to do it in this fashion unless you are already very well-known such as Amazon or eBay.

Cheap, Low Prices, Home and Garden Decor, Home Decoration | HNGWholesale.com – This one is terrible because it is just a list of keywords. Search engines might not even index this site and certainly will rank it very low.

HNGWholesale.com: Home Decor and Garden Decor at low affordable prices – This one was tested in the past and while the site comes up on page one when we search for “home and garden decor” it is near the bottom of the page. When we search for “wholesale home and garden decor” it is listed much higher.

Home & Garden Decor at low affordable prices | Wholesale & Retail | HNGWholesale.com – This one is in testing now so I will update after I determine the results. I prefer this one over the last one and expect it to attract more customers.