A post can rank on page one and still get few visits if the result doesn’t make anyone want to click. The two pieces you control most are the page title and the meta description. Neither takes long to improve, and Google’s own documentation spells out what helps.
How Google Picks the Title Link
The clickable headline in a Google result is called the title link. Google generates it automatically, and your title element is only one of the inputs. According to Google Search Central, it can also draw on your main visible heading, Open Graph title tags, other prominent text on the page and the anchor text of links pointing to the page.
That’s why a clear, honest title matters so much. If your title is vague, stuffed with keywords or doesn’t match the page, Google is more likely to replace it with something else.
Title Rules That Hold Up
From Google’s title link guidance:
- Give every page a title that describes what’s on it. Skip vague labels like “Home” or “Blog post.”
- Keep it concise. There’s no hard length limit for the title element, but Google truncates title links to fit the device, so put the most important words early.
- Avoid repeating the same keywords. It doesn’t help readers and can make the result look spammy.
- Make each title distinct, even across a series of similar posts.
- If you add your site name, keep it short and separate it with a hyphen, colon or pipe.
- Make sure the main title is also the most prominent heading on the page, usually the H1.
Meta Descriptions: A Pitch, Not a Keyword List
Google mostly builds result snippets from the page content that best matches the search, so the same page can show different snippets for different queries. It sometimes uses your meta description when it summarizes the page better than the on-page text. Google describes a good one as a short pitch for the page.
Its guidance boils down to a few points:
- Write a unique description for each important page.
- Include specific details where they help, such as what the reader will learn or who it’s for.
- Avoid keyword lists and generic text reused across pages.
- There’s no set length limit; snippets are truncated to fit the screen, so lead with what matters.
In WordPress, the description field usually comes from your SEO plugin or theme, if you use one.
A Quick Before and After
Here’s an illustrative example. A title like “Pinterest Tips” tells a searcher almost nothing. “Pinterest for Small Creators: Set Up a Business Account the Right Way” tells them who it’s for and what they’ll get. A matching description might read: “A step-by-step setup for a Pinterest business account, with the settings small creators should check first.” Plain, specific, honest.
Check What’s Working
Google Search Console’s Performance report shows clicks, impressions, click-through rate (clicks divided by impressions) and average position for your pages, with the last three months shown by default. Pages with many impressions and few clicks are your best candidates for a rewrite. Give changes time: Google says updated titles can take days to weeks to show, since pages have to be recrawled.
Do This Today
Open the Performance report, switch to the Pages tab and find three posts with plenty of impressions but a low click-through rate. Rewrite each title and description so it says exactly who the post is for and what it delivers. Note the date, then compare the numbers in a month.
More on Totally Relentless
- How to Write a Blog Post That Can Rank: A Step-by-Step Process
- Keyword Research on a Budget: A Beginner’s Guide for Small Sites
- Internal Linking for Small Blogs: A Simple System That Helps Readers and Google
