Joomla 2.5 SEO Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

Setting up your page titles and meta descriptions using Joomla's core functionality

What are Page Titles and Meta Descriptions?

When you search for something with a search engine you are presented with a SERP (search engine results page)
Each result on the page shows the "page title" and "meta description"
If you do not supply a meta description then Google will take a snippet from your page

Providing Google with a Page Title and Meta description helps Google know what your pages are about and provides a more informative listing to potential visitors when they find you in the SERPs.

The Rules

• Page Titles = max 60 characters
• Meta descriptions = max 160 characters
• Each meta description must be unique and relevant to its page

Google hates duplication and will crop your titles and descriptions if they are longer than allowed

Setting up Page Titles

Inside Joomla these are set up via menu items.
eg. to add a page title to your home page you will need to edit the home item of your menu

Edit the "home" menu item

1. Open the page display tab
2. Type your Page Title in the Browser Page Title Box
3. Set show page heading to NO
4. Save and Close

Adding a Page Description

Page descriptions are added at the article stage

1. Edit the appropriate article
2. Open the Metadata Options panel
3. Type in the Meta Description field
4. Save and Close