All Things Internet has such as AWESOME (read: annoying) way of describing things. Like metas. What does meta even mean? Is it a bird, a plane? Is it actually Superman? Can he please bring me some pizza?

Metas are the brief snippets of text that appear underneath search engine results. You may have even read one if you found this blog post via Google. They are the signposts for search engines – and subsequently Real Live People That May Well Turn Into Customers – to find your blog post.

In the event a page doesn’t have meta, search engines pull some words from the page and take a punt that that’s what your blog is about. Which is tricky when you’re writing for people, not search engines. Without diligently filling out this blog’s meta description, for example, Google may have filed it under “Superman pizza”, not “What does meta mean?”.

Search engines should be treated like small children. Tell them what the page is about. Clearly. Wherever you can. Ideally in short, easy to understand sentences using all the relevant keywords but stringing them together so that they still make sense.

Plugging this into your meta title and descriptions, as well as the Open Graph or social settings (don’t forget to choose a good-looking picture to go along with it), and you may well find your rankings start to improve.