Set title, description, and alt text per page
Every page of your website has a title and a description (meta description) that visitors don't see on the page itself, but do see in Google. The title is the blue, clickable line in the search results. The description sometimes appears underneath as a short summary. Together they largely determine whether someone clicks on your result. In addition, every photo needs an alt text. In this article you'll read the rules of thumb and where to set it.
A good title
- Say what the page is about. "Custom wedding bouquets in Amersfoort" says more than "Services" or "Home".
- Every page its own title. Pages with the same title can't be told apart in Google.
- The most important part first, your company name briefly at the end, for example "Custom wedding bouquets in Amersfoort | Flower Studio Lotte".
- The homepage should not be just your company name. "Flower Studio Lotte | Florist in Amersfoort" also tells someone who doesn't know you yet what you do and where.
- No lists of keywords. Repeating the same words over and over doesn't help; Google sees it as spam.
- Length: Google has no maximum, but cuts off the title if it doesn't fit on the screen. As a rule of thumb, aim for about 15 to 65 characters.
Google usually uses your title, but may replace it, for example if it's outdated, doesn't match the page, or is the same on many pages. In that case, improve your title; it's not a penalty.
A good description
- Summarize in plain sentences what someone will find on the page: what you offer, for whom, and where.
- Every page its own description. Short on time? Start with the homepage and your most visited pages.
- Rule of thumb for the length: about 70 to 160 characters.
Google mainly builds the snippet of text under the title from the content of the page itself, and uses your description if it summarizes the page better. A good description helps people decide. It doesn't rank you higher in Google.
A good alt text
The alt text describes what's shown in a photo. A screen reader reads it out loud to blind and visually impaired visitors, and Google uses it to understand the photo.
- Describe in one short sentence what's shown, for example "Wedding bouquet with white peonies and eucalyptus".
- Only use keywords if they fit naturally.
- An image that's purely decorative gets an empty alt text, so a screen reader skips it.
- If important text appears in an image, such as opening hours or a price, also put that text plainly on the page.
In the AI Builder
- Open your site in the AI Builder and choose SEO in the rail on the left.
- Choose This page at the top and the page you want to adjust. You'll see a preview of how the page appears in Google.
- Fill in Page title and Description. A counter shows how long they are.
- Click Save and then put your site back online.
If you leave the page title empty, the AI Builder creates one itself, by default as "Page name | Site name". You choose that structure under Whole site, Discoverability, Title for pages without their own title. Without its own title, the homepage is named just like your site; so give it a title yourself that also says what you do. Under Check this page you'll see what can still be improved, for example a missing description, a title that another page also has, or photos without a description. With Improve with AI or Rewrite with AI you can have a suggestion written; this costs edits.
You fill in the alt text under Media in the rail: click on a photo and fill in the Description field.
In the Drag-and-drop Builder
In the builder, open the dropdown menu and click Edit. Make sure the right page is open and click SEO. There you fill in the title and the description, yourself or with the AI button. You'll find it step by step in Building a website with the Drag-and-drop Builder: AI features, publishing and your own domain. Visitors only see changes once you click Publish again. For the alt text, check the image settings.
In WordPress
WordPress creates the title itself from the title of the page and the name of your site. WordPress doesn't create a description itself; for that you use an SEO plugin, which adds fields for title and description per page. You fill in the alt text on the image, in the media library or in the image block. Read more in the free WordPress course, lessons Discoverability: the basics and Media: images and alt text.
<title and description. In Google, you can see how your pages appear with site:example.com. A new title won't show in Google until Google has visited the page again.