Meta Tags and SEO — What Google Actually Looks At
What Are Meta Tags?
Meta tags are HTML elements in your page's section that tell search engines and browsers about the page's content. You can't see them on the page itself, but they're crucial for how your page appears in Google's search results.
The two most important for SEO are the title tag and meta description. Together they form your "business card" in search results — and they determine whether people click on you or your competitor.
Title Tag — The Most Important Meta Tag
The title tag is the blue, clickable headline in search results. It's the strongest on-page SEO factor you can control.
How to Write a Good Title Tag
Length: Keep it under 60 characters. Google truncates longer titles with "...".
Keyword first: Place your primary keyword at the beginning. Google gives it more weight there.
Unique per page: Every page on your site should have its own title. Duplicate titles confuse Google and your visitors.
Compelling: The title should make people want to click. Use numbers, questions, or promises.
Examples
- Bad:
Home — My Company Ltd - Good:
SEO Agency London — Visibility That Grows | My Company - Bad:
Products - Good:
Organic Dog Food — Free Shipping Over £30 | DogShop
Meta Description — Your Sales Pitch
The meta description is the gray text below the title in search results. Google doesn't use it as a direct ranking factor, but it significantly affects your click-through rate (CTR) — and CTR affects your ranking.
How to Write a Good Meta Description
Length: 120-155 characters. Too short doesn't provide enough information, too long gets truncated.
Action-oriented: Use active language. "Learn how...", "Get free...", "Compare..."
Include the keyword: Google bolds keywords in descriptions, increasing visibility.
Unique per page: Like the title, each page should have its own description.
Examples
- Bad:
We are a company that does many things. Contact us for more info. - Good:
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Open Graph Tags — Social Media
When someone shares your link on Facebook, LinkedIn, or X (Twitter), the platform uses Open Graph tags to determine what's displayed:
og:title— The headline in the share cardog:description— The descriptionog:image— The image (1200×630 px is ideal)og:type— The content type (article, website, product)
Without these tags, the platform chooses itself — often with poor results. Use them to control how your content is presented.
Canonical Tag — Avoid Duplicate Content
The canonical tag tells Google which version of a page is the "official" one. It's important when:
- You have the same content available via multiple URLs
- You have mobile and desktop versions
- You use URL parameters (filters, sorting, etc.)
<link rel="canonical" href="https://yourdomain.com/products" />Without a canonical tag, you risk Google splitting your link equity between multiple versions of the same page.
Robots Meta Tag — Control Indexing
The robots meta tag controls whether Google may index and follow links on a specific page:
index, follow— Default. Google indexes the page and follows links.noindex, follow— Google doesn't index the page but follows links.noindex, nofollow— Google neither indexes nor follows links.
Use noindex on pages that shouldn't appear in search results — login page, thank-you page, internal admin pages.
Hreflang Tag — Multilingual Sites
Is your site available in multiple languages? Hreflang tags tell Google which language versions exist:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="da" href="https://yourdomain.com/da/page" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yourdomain.com/en/page" />This ensures Danish users see the Danish version in search results, and English users see the English version.
The 5 Most Common Meta Tag Mistakes
- Missing title tags — Pages without any title. Google guesses — often poorly.
- Duplicate titles — Multiple pages with identical titles. Google can't distinguish them.
- Too-long meta descriptions — Get truncated and look unprofessional.
- Missing OG tags — Poor presentation when your link is shared on social media.
- Incorrect canonical — Canonical pointing to a different page than intended.
Check Your Meta Tags
You can manually check meta tags by right-clicking a page and selecting "View source", but it's time-consuming and easy to miss errors.
An automated SEO audit scans all your pages and reports missing, duplicate, or too-long meta tags — in seconds. Try it free.