Marketing automation comes in many forms, some good and some not so good. One of the most common types of automation is using a WordPress SEO plugin to generate content and meta tags for you. But this is not a great idea, according to Google Quality Guidelines. Here, we’ll show why writing your own content gets better results than cheap hacks Google doesn’t like. Then we’ll show you how to write great meta content.
What Google Thinks About Automated Content
Let’s say you stumble across a nifty WordPress plugin that promises to generate meta tags automatically. It sounds like a super easy way to check off the meta tag box, especially when you’re staring down a giant chore list of digital marketing tasks for your business.
Resist the temptation to sign up. Bread comes sliced. Your website doesn’t arrive pre-packaged with content. You’re supposed to create the unique, valuable content that will benefit your audience—and not clog up Google. But don’t believe us. Let’s go to Google’s Quality Guidelines for the answer on auto-generated content:
“Automatically generated—or “auto-generated”—content is content that’s been generated programmatically. Often this will consist of paragraphs of random text that make no sense to the reader but which may contain search keywords.”
How to Start Writing Great Metadata
Let’s just say you already scooped out a giant helping of auto-generated content for your site. The great news is that you’ll probably see an improvement in rankings if you fix it. Just remove the plugin causing all those Google no-no’s, then add new meta tags writing (by a human) in its place.
The key to knowing how to write meta tags is understanding them in context. Your meta tag content is a lot like the title and dust jacket blurb on a book. That intro description and title are what people see about your site in the search engine results page.
Make Your Digital Marketing More Effective With CTAs
So, let’s get them to click. Write a call-to-action (CTA) in your Description tag that urges viewers to click through—and delivers on your page promise. The Title tag should describe the purpose of the page, for example “FAQs.” Include keywords in the meta tag content when they’re pertinent to delivering a great audience experience. Don’t stuff keywords. If you get stuck or need inspiration, look up some competitors. Test out what makes you want to click on results in the search engines.
Now, Let’s Get Those Meta Tags Up and Running
The best way to implement meta tags on your WordPress site is to get a quality plugin that will help you with formatting and word count (good automation). Google has specific guidelines for the length of two of the most important meta tags, Title and Description. Going past recommended keyword lengths is not the place to get creative. Google makes the rules when it comes to SEO. It’s up to you to know the rules and play by them if you want to compete at a high level.
Use your newfound savvy to be more competitive in Google. Remove any automated content and get fresh meta tags—just be sure the new content is written by humans.
