It is very important to remember that most people you want to reach often will only find you if when they type into Google their search that your website will pop up.
If you have identified the problem that you solve for your customers, then you know what searches they are most likely to put into Google.
There are companies that are out there to help you with this process. This is all called Search engine optimization or SEO for short.
You need what we call metadata fields in your website. Here are the five things you should consider:
- Title – The title tag is one of the first things that users notice in the SERPs. It’s the title of your page that offers a preview of what your content is about.
- Meta description – The meta description should provide an accurate description of the content of your page. It is usually the element that determines whether users will click on your page, which makes it important to spend time on its optimization.
- Robots meta tag – The robots meta tag informs search engines which pages on your site should be indexed.
- Alt text – Alt text can ensure both of these things: it provides a text alternative to images which will be displayed if the image doesn’t load, or will be read out by a screenreader; it also tells search engines what that image is meant to represent.
- Canonical tag – Instead of confusing Google and missing your ranking on the SERPs, you are guiding the crawlers as to which URL counts as the “main” one. This places the emphasis on the right URL and prevents the others from cannibalizing your SEO.
All this metadata is hidden in code in the background of a page. There is a plugin you can put on your WordPress site to help you. This can help you put all the content listed above in the right places on your pages.
This is a search you can do on your own. Here I just typed, “Using the Nikon Z6 to shoot weddings.” My listing was on the first page as you see here.
When I write a blog, WordPress takes the title I give to the blog and makes it the title for the page. So when You look at this blog up in your browser tab you should see the name of the blog in the tab.
When you post photos, WordPress asks for Alternative Text to show if someone has graphics turned off and then the text will tell them what that photo is about. Also it helps when people search they may find the photo due to the Alternate Text you have associated with that photo.
Take Away
Meta can help you improve the user experience and the display of your business information.
Here we are on Part 3 and nothing has really been done. We are still in the kitchen. We are preparing for the meal to be served. You may want to think of it like getting all the ingredients ready to make a dish, casserole or baked cake.
If you skip this step you will most likely serve something that is missing an ingredient. You don’t want to mislabel the salt and sugar. They look the same, but taste quite differently.