on-page seo, match your h1 to your title and description to first paragraph on the page. google won’t change your meta data https://mathlibra.com/match-your-h1-to-your-title-and-description-to-first-paragraph-on-the-page-google-wont-change-your-meta-data/
Roy Just a heads up I have been monitoring this as well and I have pages where the H1 and title are the same but it is pulling in an H2 title for the meta title. The H2 has some similar copy to the H1 so that might have something to do with it. It is a site I recently started working on about a month and a half ago so this wouldn't be my typical practice to match up title and H1. I would never match up to my first paragraph text to my meta description because the way I write intros is more to keep someone reading. My meta descriptions are usually more to capture attention and curiosity even though they rarely get shown how I'd like anymore. (maybe that's why lol) I think I am going to continue to apply titles the way I always have and just make sure in the back of my mind any one of them might get shown so make them all count!
Mew ✍️👑 » Roy Shouldn't descriptions also be used to keep someone reading? Or am I mistaken? Daniel » Mew You are mistaken. Generally here if you ask me. Descriptions should be used to sum up the pages content shortly, in a way that make it seem interesting enough for people to want to read more. I would never just copy the first 160 characters from the first paragraph. Nor would I copy the description to the first paragraph. It's simply bad advice. Same goes for the TITLE vs. the H1. Sometimes it is perfectly fine they match, and sometimes it doesn't make sense. Often I want the headline to be different than the title, as I'm using the TITLE along with the description, and not the first paragraph. Not saying that you method don't work, I just never heard of or seen any SEO guys doing that before. Literally, this is the first time, and I've been working in this business for more than a decade Mew ✍️👑 » Daniel So again, I ask. Descriptions should also be used to keep someone reading? 🙂
Daniel » Mew Indeed. But it shouldn't just match the first paragraph 💟1 Mew ✍️👑 » Daniel If it's crafted for Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) and the page wouldn't it make the most sense that the description is a preview that gets them to click and the on page is just an extension of what the preview for the description was? That makes the most sense to me. Daniel » Mew That's a personal opinion. I prefer to get a short briefing about what I can expect to read about, not just an excerpt from the first paragraph. I can read that, if the article seems interesting to me. Generally Google wants the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) to match what the users seeks information about. Saying that should always just be the first paragraph is simply wrong and misleading if you ask me Mew ✍️👑 » Daniel Seems kind of conclusive to me that descriptions should be snippets or excerpts from the page based on language. 🤷🏼♂️
Daniel » Mew Keeps writing content your way, and I'll do it my way. We can both be happy about that. I disagree with your opinion though. Have a nice day Mew ✍️👑 » Daniel You too 🙂 Mew ✍️👑 Here you go guys. Google directly saying they use on page signals like an H1 to understand a title. I guarantee they also use on page text to understand descriptions. Now we have de-facto, non opinions 🙂
Čotar In the tests I have done in past similar but not exact match for h1 and title with the main keyword ranked better than the exact match of the title with h1. I also read that including the text of meta descriptions and Adwords, if running, in the first paragraph or similar can help, and to me it sounds logical looking at what Google likes. On the other hand it also sounds logical, that a variation of should be better than the exact match and copy of meta description in the 1st paragraph, or title in h1, since Google promotes differentiation… in many sens, like with anchor texts in links and similar.
Mew ✍️👑 » Čotar If you can craft a great title and description they will fit perfectly in the H1 and on the page. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's doable if you spend enough time coming up with all viable combinations and choosing the one that meets all of the needs for the SERPs and on the page Čotar » Mew Yes you can make them fit, but a variation of meta title as h1 ranked better in my tests than the exact match of title and h1. Mew ✍️👑 » Čotar Maybe it depends on the niche
Bez Is that what you're referring to? I'm using it since months and Google changes my titles based on query.same page ranks for few queries and has different titles in the result.so..No.Just matching title with a h1,h2,h3 or h10000 doesn't make a difference. Btw about 90% of my titles matches with metatag. Only 10% doesn't. Type site:yourdomain dot something and you may see a little difference.
Mew ✍️👑 » Bez If they are a 1:1 match, Google will not change them. The point of the description in the SERPs is to be an excerpt from the page and a title, to be a title also known as a heading 🙂 Bez » Mew You didn't read what danny wrote.. Not only headlines makes the cocktail. Img alt-text,link anchors,headlines,content and more.And i told you i'm using headline matching for months and it doesn't matter.If you have a h1 + img alt text, link titles for outgoing links matching, this results in a headline indexing…Because it's plausible for the algorythm. Mew ✍️👑 » Bez The headline is suppose to index and be the title. They're semantically the same thing?
Conway Does the H1 and Title need to be the same, whilst being within the description also? Or can they be different but providing they're somewhere on the page? Not necessarily at the top?
Mew ✍️👑 » Conway The only purpose of a title and a description is to show people what the title of the page is (the headline) and an excerpt from the page. That's why they were created. Just match the title to the H1 and the description to the first excerpt on the page and Google will never alter it 🙂 Conway » Mew And are these ranking factors also? Or, if Google sees this isn't the case would it use its own choice and rank the same position anyway do you think? Mew ✍️👑 » Conway They can be ranking factors if crafted and constructed correctly. I wouldn't leave it up to Google if you know how to make sure you don't have to. Mew ✍️👑 » Conway
Conway » Mew Yeah I was just reading this. Our highest ranking pages have a description that's not in the page at all… so do we add it to the page or do we leave it as it is, happy with our position 3? Lol. I don't want to lost rank lol. Mew ✍️👑 » Conway I'd be personally trying to craft descriptions that fit on page and in the SERP, but that's how we do it at my company. You have to make the best choice for yours 🙂
Brad Shouldn't you just make your title describe your page the best way possible in 60 chars or less? In my opinion if your title gets people to click then your CTR will naturally be high. That's the most powerful signal for the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
Mew ✍️👑 » Brad Your title should also be your H1…why wouldn't it be? If people visit from other pages, and not the SERPs would you still want it to capture them? Write for the SERPs and the page simultaneously! Brad » Mew Yep! But I see some people tack on sitename and other token replacement things that just waste chars imo. I know most auto SEO plugins do this out of the box. I always kill those.
on-page seo, match your h1 to your title and description to first paragraph on the page. google won’t change your meta data https://mathlibra.com/match-your-h1-to-your-title-and-description-to-first-paragraph-on-the-page-google-wont-change-your-meta-data/
