Meta Tags for SEO: Title Tags and Meta Descriptions Explained

Open any page on your website. Right-click anywhere. Click 'View page source.' Search for the title tag. Whatever appears inside it is your title tag. Now go to Google and search for your business name. The blue headline in the search result is your title tag in action. That's the first thing a potential customer sees. And for most Melbourne small business websites, it's wrong.

What Is a Title Tag?

The title tag is the HTML element that defines the name of a web page. It appears in the blue clickable headline in Google search results, the browser tab when someone has the page open, and when pages are shared on social media (if no OG title is set). It's one of Google's strongest on-page ranking signals. Google reads your title tag to understand what your page is about and which searches to show it for.

How to Write a Title Tag That Ranks and Gets Clicks

Four rules for every title tag:

• Include the primary keyword near the front: Google front-loads keyword relevance. 'Plumber Werribee | Business Name' outperforms 'Business Name | Plumbing Werribee'.
• Keep it under 60 characters: Google truncates titles longer than approximately 580 pixels. In practice, this is around 60 characters. Anything beyond gets cut off with '…' in search results.
• Make every title unique: 50% of websites use duplicate title tags. Google can't tell which page is more relevant when two pages share the same title. One page wins, the other gets suppressed.
• Write for humans first: The keyword needs to be there, but the title also needs to make someone want to click. 'Plumber Werribee | Same-Day Emergency Service' answers the searcher's implicit 'will this help me?' question.

What Is a Meta Description?

The meta description is the grey text beneath the title in search results. It doesn't directly affect rankings. What it directly affects is click-through rate — the percentage of people who see your result and click it. A well-written meta description explains what the page is about, includes a benefit, and ends with a reason to click. A missing or generic meta description gets replaced by Google pulling random text from your page — usually text that wasn't written to sell the click.

How to Write a Meta Description That Gets Clicks

• Length: 155 to 160 characters. Longer gets truncated. Shorter misses opportunity.
• Include the primary keyword naturally: Not because it affects ranking, but because Google bolds the query words in the description. Bold text draws the eye.
• State the benefit: What does the reader get from clicking? 'Learn how Melbourne plumbers get 312% more organic traffic' beats 'Read about plumber SEO strategies.'
• Include a call to action: 'Get a free audit', 'See how it works', 'Download the checklist.' Tell the reader what to do next.
• Write unique descriptions for every page: Google shows the description it thinks best matches the query. A description written for the page's specific content outperforms auto-generated text.

When Google Rewrites Your Title Tag

Google rewrites title tags in approximately 57% of cases when the original is too long, too short, stuffed with keywords, or doesn't match the page's actual content. When Google rewrites your title, it uses text from your H1 heading, anchor text from links pointing to the page, and content from within the page itself.

The fix: write titles that accurately describe the page content, match search intent, and stay under 60 characters. Google rewrites titles when it thinks it can do better. Give it no reason to think that.

The Other Meta Tags Worth Knowing

Meta Robots

This tag controls whether Google indexes the page. The dangerous version is the 'noindex, nofollow' directive — it tells Google: don't index this page. If this appears on any page you want Google to rank, remove it immediately. Check every service page in your CMS's SEO settings. One accidentally ticked checkbox can noindex everything.

Open Graph Tags

Not SEO signals, but they control how your pages appear when shared on Facebook and LinkedIn. Without them, social shares pull random images and text. Add og:title, og:description, and og:image to every page. Most SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math) handle this automatically.

Canonical Tag

Tells Google which version of a page is the primary one when duplicate or similar URLs exist. Every page should have a canonical tag pointing to itself unless you're intentionally consolidating duplicate content. Inconsistent canonicals are one of the most common causes of the 'Duplicate, Google chose different canonical' error in Search Console.

How to Check and Fix Your Meta Tags

• Google Search Console: Coverage report > Crawled pages. Look for 'Duplicate title tags' and 'Missing title tags' in the Enhancements section.
• Screaming Frog: Crawl your site. Filter the Page Titles tab by 'Missing', 'Duplicate', and 'Over 60 characters'. Do the same for Meta Descriptions.
• Your CMS: WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math shows a title/meta preview for every page and post. Edit in the SEO section at the bottom of each editor.

Meta tags are the most accessible part of on-page SEO and the fastest to fix for most Melbourne sites.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I include my business name in every title tag?

Include it at the end, after the primary keyword and descriptor. 'Dentist Werribee | Bulk Billing | Happy Smiles' is better than 'Happy Smiles | Dentist Werribee'. Brand recognition matters less than keyword relevance for initial click decisions from cold searches.

What happens if I leave the meta description blank?

Google automatically generates one by extracting text from the page. This auto-generated description is rarely optimised for clicks and often pulls irrelevant text. Always write your own.

Do meta keywords still matter?

No. Google stopped using the meta keywords tag in 2009. Including them wastes time and potentially signals to competitors which terms you're targeting. Don't add them.