Title tags and meta descriptions for a service business: what to write and what to leave

Write the title tag as the words a buyer typed, in the order they typed them, followed by your name. Write the meta description as one plain sentence of what the page offers and a reason to click. Leave out slogans, your phone number, claims you cannot prove and every word that appears on all your pages. A good title is specific to one page.

What each one is for

The title tag is the blue line in the results and the label on a browser tab. It tells Google and the reader what the page is about. The meta description is the grey text below it. It does not decide your position; it decides whether someone taps.

Both are written in the page settings, not on the page itself, which is why owners rarely see them. Many website tools show them in a search or SEO box beside each page. Ask your developer where.

A rule to write each one

Use the same pattern each time and adjust.

• Title: main service, then place or audience, then your name. Roughly sixty characters, with the important words at the start.
• Description: one sentence on what the page gives the reader, one on why it is trustworthy or what happens next. Roughly one hundred and fifty characters, though the limit moves.
• Leave out: "Welcome to", "Home", "best", "No. 1", the same slogan on every page, a phone number, capital letters throughout.

These lengths are guides. Google rewrites titles and descriptions it thinks do not fit, so accuracy matters more than hitting a count.

Three hypothetical rewrites

The three cases below are invented for illustration. Each shows a before and an after for a service business whose pages were titled out of habit.

A clinic in Malviya Nagar, Jaipur

A physiotherapy clinic titles its treatment page with its name and a slogan.

Before
Title: Sunrise Clinic | Care You Can Trust | Home
Description: Welcome to Sunrise Clinic, where we care about you and your family. Call now.

After
Title: Back pain physiotherapy in Malviya Nagar, Jaipur | Sunrise Clinic
Description: Assessment and physiotherapy for back and neck pain at our Malviya Nagar clinic. See what the first visit involves and who treats you.

The after names the treatment and the locality in the order a patient types. It promises no recovery. Claims about outcomes in health are rightly restricted, and rules differ by state and body. Check the wording with your own adviser or council.

A fabricator in Ambattur, Chennai

A sheet metal fabricator has one page called "Services" with a title shared across the site.

Before
Title: Services | Kumar Engineering Works
Description: We offer all kinds of fabrication services at competitive rates.

After
Title: Sheet metal fabrication and laser cutting, Ambattur | Kumar Engineering
Description: Drawings to finished sheet metal parts, from prototypes to repeat batches. Send a drawing and the quantity to receive a quotation.

"Services" tells nobody anything. The after says what is made and where, and the description names the action a buyer with a drawing would take. If the laser cutting is a separate page, split it into two titles instead of loading one.

A CA firm in Kochi

A chartered accountancy firm uses the same title on every page.

Before
Title: Thomas & Associates, Chartered Accountants
Description: Thomas & Associates is a leading firm offering a wide range of professional services.

After
Title: GST registration and return filing in Kochi | Thomas & Associates
Description: Help with GST registration, returns and notices for small businesses in Kochi. Tell us your turnover category to see what applies to you.

The after separates one service from the firm's many. "Leading" is dropped, since it is a claim a buyer cannot check. Tax and professional rules vary and change, so describe the work, not a legal result.

Find the words buyers actually use

Do not invent the main phrase. Ask the people who answer your phone what callers say, and read the search report your site owner can open, which lists the searches that already showed your pages. A fabricator may find, for instance, that buyers type "laser cutting" far more than "sheet metal fabrication", and that nobody types "engineering solutions". Put the phrase most callers use first.

One more check: search your chosen phrase on your phone and read the three titles above yours. If all three begin with the same words, begin yours with the part only you can say, such as the locality or the material.

What to do with the rest of your pages

Work through your site in order of enquiries, not alphabetically. Start with the five pages that bring the most calls or forms, then the pages you want to bring more.

A mistake that undoes good titles

If the page below a new title does not answer the words in it, you attract the click and lose the visitor. A title is a promise, and the page is where it is kept. Fix the page first. The post on what a service landing page must include covers the page side.

Do not change every title in one weekend and then watch the numbers daily. Change the top few, wait, and compare enquiries.

What a rewrite will and will not do

A better title does not guarantee a better position. Google may show its own version of your title, as the first answer above says, and a new title can lose clicks if it is more accurate but less appealing. The invented clinic above might see more taps from people with back pain and fewer from people who typed the clinic's name. That is a fair trade only if the new visitors book. So keep a note of each title before you change it, write the date next to the new one, and compare the enquiries your own register shows. If the number falls and nothing else changed, put the old title back.

Rewrite the five busiest pages

Read the current title and description of each aloud and ask whether a stranger would know what the page is for. Rewrite the ones that fail, using the pattern above, and write the old title and the date in your register before you change it. Titles are the first line of your marketing that a buyer reads in search, and on-page SEO is the service name for this work. If you would like the full list reviewed, tell us what you need.