Are you tired of bro marketing, manipulative algorithms, and sales funnels that encourage you to ‘trip’ a prospect to make her buy more? Then you’re in the right place.
On Small Stage, Big Impact veteran digital strategist, Renia Carsillo, combines solo teaching episodes with interviews to help you learn how to build a sustainable, people-first digital strategy that works for your business. Along the way, she speaks to digital activists, upstart developers, badass content creators, brave community leaders, and other behind-the-scenes folx you probably haven’t heard on a podcast before. To help you answer one important question:
How do we do better digital (#DoBetterDigital) so we can be better humans?
What if you could improve your SEO and #DoBetterDigital at the same time?
Between the useful, quality content on your website and a potential customer lies a few pieces of text. This text can mean the difference between converting a new lead or losing another one to the competitors.
What could make such a big difference to your bottom line?
Metadata.
You may be ignoring it. You may be confused by it. You may have never even heard of it.
But these small pieces of text tell search engines what your website’s about. That data then affects your search ranking, which affects your online visibility.
In this episode, we discuss the three types of metadata.
- Meta titles
- Meta descriptions
- Alt text
Take a minute to think about your own web searches. When you’re looking at a page full of search results, how do you determine which links to click? You read the blue links, as well as the information underneath them.
These are your meta titles and descriptions. And if you’re using them to decide which sites to visit, don’t you think your audience is doing the same?
Meta titles and descriptions impact your click-through-rate. Your click-through-rate affects your search ranking. Both of these impact brand awareness and website traffic. Do you see how this all works together?
Alt text is alternative text for images. Have you ever visited a page and an image failed to load? Sometimes you’ll see text in its place that describes the image. That’s alt text.
You’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with accessibility.
Metadata was originally intended as information for screen readers. The text helps the screen reader understand the content and navigation of websites. Alt text also helps those who are visually impaired but don’t use screen readers.
And then marketers ruined metadata.
Visually impaired people are still using screen readers. But often the metadata they encounter is unhelpful. It is nonsensical or even missing.
Poorly written metadata hurts both marketers and consumers. Let’s talk about how we can tackle metadata and make the digital world more accessible at the same time.
Listen now.
In episode 38 of Small Stage, Big Impact we discuss:
- [3:14] How metadata impacts your bottom line and why it shouldn’t be ignored
- [4:12] What alt text was originally intended for and how it can increase traffic when used correctly
- [7:01] Tips for optimizing your current metadata in order to bring your website up-to-date
- [8:10] What meta titles are and how they impact your search ranking
- [9:32] What meta descriptions are and how they impact your search rankings
- [11:58] Tips for writing meta titles and descriptions that will drive traffic to your site
- [22:02] Tips for writing alt text so you can #DoBetterDigital for others and for your business
- [28:13] When and why to use image captions and how to write them effectively
- [30:20] Some great resources for optimizing the metadata on your website
Resources mentioned by Renia in the episode:
- Download Renia’s metadata cheatsheet
- Check out the SEO Yoast plug-in to optimize the metadata on your WordPress site
- Check out Moz Meta Title Checker if you’re not using WordPress
- Leave a review on iTunes
- Follow LoreniaC on Instagram
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Don’t miss an episode of season 4 of Small Stage, Big Impact
What if you could improve your SEO and #DoBetterDigital at the same time?
Between the useful, quality content on your website and a potential customer lies a few pieces of text. This text can mean the difference between converting a new lead or losing another one to the competitors.
What could make such a big difference to your bottom line?
Metadata.
You may be ignoring it. You may be confused by it. You may have never even heard of it.
But these small pieces of text tell search engines what your website’s about. That data then affects your search ranking, which affects your online visibility.
In this episode, we discuss the three types of metadata.
- Meta titles
- Meta descriptions
- Alt text
Take a minute to think about your own web searches. When you’re looking at a page full of search results, how do you determine which links to click? You read the blue links, as well as the information underneath them.
These are your meta titles and descriptions. And if you’re using them to decide which sites to visit, don’t you think your audience is doing the same?
Meta titles and descriptions impact your click-through-rate. Your click-through-rate affects your search ranking. Both of these impact brand awareness and website traffic. Do you see how this all works together?
Alt text is alternative text for images. Have you ever visited a page and an image failed to load? Sometimes you’ll see text in its place that describes the image. That’s alt text.
You’re probably wondering what any of this has to do with accessibility.
Metadata was originally intended as information for screen readers. The text helps the screen reader understand the content and navigation of websites. Alt text also helps those who are visually impaired but don’t use screen readers.
And then marketers ruined metadata.
Visually impaired people are still using screen readers. But often the metadata they encounter is unhelpful. It is nonsensical or even missing.
Poorly written metadata hurts both marketers and consumers. Let’s talk about how we can tackle metadata and make the digital world more accessible at the same time.
Listen now.
Also Available on YouTube with Custom Captions for Non-Hearing
Episode 38 Recap
- [3:14] How metadata impacts your bottom line and why it shouldn’t be ignored
- [4:12] What alt text was originally intended for and how it can increase traffic when used correctly
- [7:01] Tips for optimizing your current metadata in order to bring your website up-to-date
- [8:10] What meta titles are and how they impact your search ranking
- [9:32] What meta descriptions are and how they impact your search rankings
- [11:58] Tips for writing meta titles and descriptions that will drive traffic to your site
- [22:02] Tips for writing alt text, so you can #DoBetterDigital for others and for your business
- [28:13] When and why to use image captions and how to write them effectively
- [30:20] Some great resources for optimizing the metadata on your website
Resources Mentioned in Episode 38
- Download Renia’s metadata cheatsheet
- Check out the SEO Yoast plug-in to optimize the metadata on your WordPress site
- Check out Moz Meta Title Checker if you’re not using WordPress
- Get more DIY Digital Marketing tips with our complete guide.
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Small Stage, Big Impact is hosted by Renia Carsillo (that’s me!). I am hardcore passionate and committed to bringing the systems and strategies that give big brands an unfair advantage to local businesses. For that reason, I created the Local Rock Star Intensive, where I help local business owners use their small stage to have a BIG impact. Thank you for being here and reading this far!
