Please help me clarify conflicting info on SEO Meta Tagging?

[mikepcservice]

Seems marketers are divided on how to fill in the Meta info so I have to ask myself "what does google want" or if google does not give out that info then what are the best "proven" strategies? Let me itemize for uniformity.

Title - Best Plumber in NYC | Ace Plumbing Company

First is the issue of placing descriptive word like best, cheap, professional e.t.c before the kw. Is this best practice or put only the kw?

I am located in Queens, New York but trying to also reach the adjacent Boroughs, Brooklyn and Bronx. Should I add location first of all with the kw? It is said google will display those closest to you first but I know for a fact that this is not always the case. I am seeing right now a Brooklyn company in first spot on page one when I type my search here in queens.

Next, I see some put a second kw after the separator and some put the name of the company which is better option and why please? Thx.

 

[Conor Treacy]

For us, we follow the thought process of what is it that the user wants to see. If it's the home page, then the business name would go into the Title Tag. However, if they're looking for a solution to something, then usually they don't care about what company is going to provide it, they just need it fixed.

So, for a plumber, do I care if Ace is going to fix it, or that Ace can fix Low Water Pressure issues?

"We fix Low Water Pressure Problems | Serving Queens, Brookly, Brox"

This is a more apt title than leaving off the cities and having the company name.

So for the home page, we recommend the business name, but for the most part, the other pages should be service/keyword/phrase based. Same in the description meta tag - use it to add in keywords which will bold as the user types them in the search.

As far as using Best, Top, Great, Awesome - we do sprinkle these in from time to time, but most people are not looking for "top plumbers in new york", they're looking just for "plumbers in new york". Maybe they're looking for "licenced" rather than "best".

Oh, and we NEVER use the word "cheap"

 

[mikepcservice]

GREAT info, thank you very much! Yeah I would never use the word cheap, just put that there as an example.

So for the Description, can add the same in it or would that be considered duplicate content?

We fix Low Water Pressure Problems | Serving Queens, Brookly, Brox"

 

[Conor Treacy]

No concerns about duplicate content in meta tags. But don't use the same text, use a different variation.

Broken pressure regulator? Water pressure problems in the shower or sink? Ace can fix it! From installation to pipe repairs, we are your go-to plumber for Queens and surrounding area.

Something similar to the above would be better in the description. Keep it under the 140 character count for best display

Also, keep in mind that Google may just use text from your page rather than the description you define.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks again!

Instead of creating a new thread for this since it's similar principles please help me clear up images info.

Some are saying only fill out the Alt and the title fields as google will ignore the other 2 fields [caption and description], is this true?

 

[Conor Treacy]

WordPress media section - these settings are going to depend on your theme and how it is configured. Most developers have them enabled, but we've seen themes at Envato that lazy developers don't put the title or alt text on the img call.

Make the Title and Alt tags different
The title is used when you hover over an image
Alt Text used by screen readers
- both are read by search engines and can influence rankings

Caption field is used as the text that would show below the image on the page - can be read by search engines if the text shows on the page, otherwise, it's ignored.

The description field is displayed only if you have the Image Attachment page enabled and would show on that attachment page. It can be as long as you want. Most people do not redirect the image to its own individual page, and instead to the post/page where the image was used. I can't recall if there is a setting for the Image Attachment in the default WordPress, but I know there's a setting in Yoast, and I believe there's one in RankMath.

All 4 fields are used in the Media section if you search for a word. Usually, I use the Description area as a way to search for an image easier (adding keywords, article titles, etc) as I don't have the description showing on the website anywhere.

 

[mikepcservice]

All 4 fields are used in the Media section if you search for a word. Usually, I use the Description area as a way to search for an image easier (adding keywords, article titles, etc) as I don't have the description showing on the website anywhere.

Right but for google crawling and ranking purposes the description and captions would not be necessary, is this right? I am thinking the caption should be used for those with disabilities?

 

[Conor Treacy]

The description would be used if your image links to the image attachment page. You've probably loaded a site before and when you click the image it just has details about the image, file name, file size etc. That would also show the description. It was more common years ago, these days most people don't link their images to the media file.

The captions will show on the page, under the image, if your theme supports it. Those captions can be indexed by search engines. Here's a post from a few years ago - Drunk On SEO - The Comparison | Big Red SEO
After the opening paragraph, you'll see an image. the text below it "Click For Video: Getting Drunk on SEO" is actually the caption text associated with the image.

If you mouse over the image and leave your mouse on it (don't move), you'll see a line of text show up. This is the Title field. Indexed by search engines and used for the website viewer to get/see more information.

The Alt Text is used for the disabilities and screen reader software. Viewable in code, but not to a normal web user.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks. One more myth I'd like to clear up please is the use of Sitemaps. I see many sites which doesn't have sitemaps in their footer, is this now obsolete or not neccessary for the Search Engines?

 

[Conor Treacy]

I haven't made an HTML Sitemap since probably 2000. Most sites are too small to need them, and the ones that are big enough should have a good page structure that they're not needed anyway.

XML Sitemap - yes, definitely do that. Add it to your robots.txt file so search engines can find it. Submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmasters. In WordPress, instead of submitting the single sitemap which then includes the sitemaps for posts, pages, taxonomies etc - submit them as individual ones. This way, if there's an error or one can't be indexed, it's easier to see it in the search console.

Site note; Footers in general - I wonder how many people actually use them for anything! We all have them on pages, but if you look at heatmaps or click maps etc, at least with any of our clients, the footer is seldom used. Even the "back to top" buttons are rarely clicked, and people just scroll back up on their own. This would be an interesting case study!

 

[mikepcservice]

Wow what a wealth of info, thank you very much!

 

[mikepcservice]

Getting back to images topic guys, there are many articles all over the next telling you how to optimize an image but I cannot find a single image showing what's filled out in 4 fields, can anyone link me to one please so I can know for sure what a properly optimized image contents should look like?

Also, can automated tools for this work like this one below or should it be done manually?

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