SEO that fits in an afternoon: the title and description of every page

Before anyone opens your site, they read two lines on Google: the title and the description. It is your shop window. And it is one of the few parts of SEO a business owner can improve in an afternoon, without writing code.

The page title

The title is the blue line in search results and the text on the browser tab. It helps Google and people understand what the page is about.

• Say what the page is, not what the company wants to seem like. "Rural guesthouse in the Douro International Park" says more than "Welcome to our space".
• Every page has its own title. If they all start with "Home" or share the same text, Google cannot tell them apart.
• Keep it short, around 60 characters, so it is not cut off in results.
• Put the brand name at the end, not the start.

The description

The description is the small text under the title. It is not a direct ranking factor, but it is what persuades people to click. Google may show different text, but writing a good description raises the chance that yours appears.

• Two sentences, around 150 characters.
• Answer the searcher's question: what they will find here and why they should click.
• End with a clear action, such as asking for a quote or booking.
• Do not repeat the title.

The same care for headings inside the page

The main heading (the H1) and subheadings organise the text. They should summarise each part, like a table of contents. One H1 per page, and subheadings that make sense when read on their own.

An example

Before: "Home | Company X". After: "Accounting for small businesses in Fortaleza | Company X". The second says what it does, where and for whom.

How to do it in practice

• List your main pages: home, services, contact and the most visited ones.
• Write a title and a description for each one, using the rules above.
• In our dashboard, the home page has its own title and description fields, and in articles and cases the title and summary play that role, all editable with no code. In other systems, look for "SEO" or "meta" in the page settings.
• A few weeks later, open Google Search Console and see which pages got clicks and from which searches.

It is not a trick to reach first place. It is the foundation: if the title and description do not tell searchers why they should click, the rest of the work loses strength. If you want help reviewing your site's pages, get in touch.