Search for your business on Google and look at the result. There’s a blue headline and a couple of lines of grey text underneath. Those are usually your page title and your meta description, and on many small business websites they’re missing, repeated on every page or cut off halfway through.
They’re small bits of text, but they’re often the first thing a potential customer reads. Here’s what each one does and how to write them well.
What is a page title?
The page title is the clickable headline in Google’s search results. It also appears in the browser tab. Every page on your site should have its own.
It’s different from the heading people see on the page itself. The two are often similar, but the page title is written for search results, where space is limited and it sits right alongside your competitors.
What makes a good page title
- Say what the page is about, plainly. “Emergency plumber in Tweed Heads” is clearer than “Welcome”.
- Put the important words first. Long titles get cut off, usually somewhere around 60 characters.
- Include your location where it matters. For local businesses, the town name helps people see you’re nearby.
- Add your business name at the end, as in “Bathroom renovations in Ballina | Your Business Name”.
- Make each one unique. If every page is titled “Home”, Google and your visitors can’t tell them apart.
What is a meta description?
This is the short summary under the title in search results. It doesn’t appear on the page itself. It sits in the page’s code, for search engines and social media to read.
It won’t move you up the results on its own. What it can do is persuade someone to click on your listing instead of the one above or below it. Think of it as a small ad for the page.
Google doesn’t always use the text you write. Sometimes it pulls a different snippet from your page if it thinks that better matches what someone searched for. Even so, writing a good one gives you the best chance of shaping that first impression.
How to write a good meta description
- Keep it to roughly 150 to 155 characters, so it isn’t cut off.
- Describe what the person will find, in plain words.
- Include the main search phrase naturally. Google often bolds words that match the search.
- Give a reason to click, such as free quotes, opening hours or the area you service.
- Write a different one for every page.
A before and after example
Here’s how a café’s home page might look in search results.
Before:
Title: Home
Description: none set, so Google shows whatever text it finds, such as a line from the footer.
After:
Title: Café and breakfast in Alstonville | Your Café Name
Description: Local coffee, all-day breakfast and homemade cakes in the heart of Alstonville. Open seven days, with outdoor seating for you and the dog.
The second version tells people exactly what they’ll get and where. It’s far more likely to earn the click.
The same approach works for any business. A service page for an electrician in Byron Bay might mention the main services, the towns covered and that quotes are free. A health clinic page might mention the type of appointments, whether new patients are welcome and how to book. Keep it specific, keep it honest, and write it for a person rather than a search engine.
Don’t forget your other pages
It’s easy to put all the effort into the home page and leave the rest. But people often land on a service page, a blog post or your contact page straight from Google. Each of those deserves its own clear title and summary, written for the people most likely to be searching for it.
Common mistakes we see
When we run a free website health check, page titles and descriptions are one of the first things we look at. Common problems include:
- the same title on every page, often just the business name;
- no description at all, so Google guesses;
- titles stuffed with keywords, like “Plumber Lismore Plumbing Lismore Best Plumber”;
- descriptions copied from another page or left as the template default;
- old titles mentioning services the business no longer offers.
These turn up a lot on DIY sites, because website builders don’t always prompt you to fill them in. We explain more in why DIY websites can struggle on Google.
Where to change them
On a WordPress site, page titles and descriptions are usually set with an SEO plugin. Each page or post has a section below the editor where you can type them in and preview how they’ll look in search results.
Once they’re updated, Google needs to visit the page again before the changes show. Google Search Console lets you see which searches your pages appear for, which helps you check that your titles match what people are actually looking for.
Every custom WordPress website we build includes on-page SEO foundations, so each page gets its own title and meta description from the start. We can’t promise rankings, but getting the basics right gives your site the best start. If you’d like your Google tools sorted at the same time, our digital setup service connects Search Console, Google Analytics and your Google Business Profile to your website.
Want us to check your page titles?
Not sure what your site shows in Google? Book a free website health check. In about 30 minutes we’ll review your titles, descriptions and the rest of your on-page SEO, and explain what’s worth fixing in plain English. Call us on 02 6610 9202, Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm.
