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Understanding Meta Tags and Monitoring App Activity
Understanding Meta Tags and Monitoring App Activity

Meta tags hold significant importance as they help optimize a website and improve its visibility in search results.

Updated over a month ago

What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are snippets of code hidden in the background of each page on your website. While they don't appear on the visible part of your site, they play a crucial role in improving your website's search engine visibility by providing information to search engines like Google about the content of each page. Let's go over a few important meta tags:

FEW IMPORTANT META TAGS

→ Page Title and Meta Description

These two meta tags are what you see in search result pages when you search for something on the web, providing a summary of the page's content. It’s important to note that they are different from the product title and description set in your Shopify admin. So, don't worry about our app's AutoPilot feature overwriting the visible product titles and descriptions on your site. Our app generates page titles and meta descriptions based on your product information without affecting the visible content on your site.

seo-support-demo · BOOSTER SEO & IMAGE OPTIMIZER · Shopify 2023-12-29 at 7.12.04 AM

→ Image Alt Text

Image alt text, also known as an "alt tag," is a meta tag linked to images on your web pages. The alt text describes the image's content, helping your site's images rank higher on image search engines like Google Image Search.

How to check if the app is working on your site?

After optimizing your meta tags with our app, Booster SEO & IMAGE OPTIMIZER, it is essential to know that the app is working effectively on your site. Monitoring the app's activity can provide insights into its impact on your website's SEO performance. In this section, we will guide you through the process of checking image alt tags and other metadata on your site!

→ Option 1: Through the Reports section of the app

To review the issues fixed by the app on your site, go to the Reports section of the app. You can use the tabs at the top of the list to filter the fixes by type, then click “View” to see more details on a particular fix.

→ Option 2: Through the code

To directly see the code generated by the app, you can view a page’s meta tags by right-clicking on a page and selecting "View source" or adding "view-source:" to the beginning of the page's URL then pressing Enter.

To view image alt-text, the easiest way is to right-click on an image and select "Inspect” or press F12 then select the Inspector (mouse pointer icon). Click on an image and scroll until you find "alt=".

Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of this process:


Common questions

Why aren't meta tags updated in Shopify?

The app won't overwrite Shopify's meta tags; it will only override them in the source code of your pages. This change ensures that Google uses the meta tags from our app instead of Shopify's. In simpler terms, what you see in your Shopify doesn't directly match the content in your site's code. It represents what Shopify would add to the code if it were responsible for SEO, instead of our app. This means that any adjustments made to meta tags in the app won't be mirrored or shown in your Shopify admin.

Why is my Google description not showing the meta description I used?

Please keep in mind that it could take several weeks before you start seeing changes from the app reflected in Google search results. This is expected especially if your store is new or has been set up just recently, as Google requires time to index your site's new information.

What is the recommended length for meta descriptions?

Google frequently updates how search results are displayed. In recent times, Google has showcased up to 320 characters in meta descriptions, hence that's the maximum mentioned in the app.

Currently, Google typically cuts off meta descriptions at 155 to 160 characters on desktop screens and 120 characters on mobile screens. While Google might occasionally show more characters, it's advisable to ensure that crucial content is within the first 120 characters. This approach increases the likelihood of essential information appearing in search results. Keep in mind that, in some cases, Google may choose not to display the meta description, opting for text from the page content instead. Check this report for more details on that.

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