Summary
This is an article/video about how to set your Google title and description, so, what Google shows, when your website appears in the search. It’s not a video about how to score on Google!
So here is an example of this website and how to set up, what’s written there.
Video
Plugin Rank Math
There are so many SEO plugins, and they all offer a thousand features, and I never really understood what those features are for. I have personally used two plugins, the most popular one – Yoast and Rank Math. I am not saying Rank Math is better, but I have slightly more experience with it, and it starts with a simple wizard, which is nice.
The Rank Math Wizard
What I like here, is that right from the start, it allows you to set the favicon image and the social media share image. The rest is not really important, and you definitely don’t have to create an account, basically just skip everything other than the images.
Setting the Title and Description
You can do this for all of your pages, posts, portfolios, but the homepage is the most important. So in editing of the given page, there are now these buttons in the right upper corner. Basically, ignore everything other than the button “Edit Snippet”.
There is a selection for keywords, there are these weird numbers 9/100 and much more confusing settings. All of that is the plugin, trying to help you write good content, but those are not taken for consideration by Google, it has no influence whatsoever. Sure, it might be useful for someone, but please, it is not for Google, it’s only for you. Google only takes in the Title and the Description that you write in the snippet editing.
Hiding from Google
Rank Math also gives you a possibility of hiding specific content, so in case you want something on your website, but you don’t want Google to index it, you can use these settings. So in the advanced section, select “no-index”.
Google takes time
Not only does Google take some time, it might be up to 3 days, before your title and description shows up. Google might not even use them, if it doesn’t like them, but generally, it does. You can check, if your website is indexed by googling “site:yourdomain.com”. Also make sure, that your WordPress doesn’t block the indexing in Settings -> Reading -> Search engine visibility.
Transcription of the video
So first things first: this is a tutorial for WordPress users on how to tell Google what to display if your website appears in search results. This is not a tutorial on how to rank higher or how to appear in the results—it’s only about what gets shown if you do appear.
For example, here’s my WordPress theme. I chose this image, I wrote this title, and I wrote this description. That’s pretty much it. You don’t really have control over the rest. A lot of people think you can choose keywords you want your website to rank for—but that’s not true. You can write content that includes those keywords, but you can’t submit a list of keywords and expect Google to show your site for them. That’s just not how it works. So really, the only things you have control over are these three elements: the image, the title, and the description.
To control these in WordPress without coding, you’ll need a plugin. My favorite is RankMath, so let’s use that. Alright, let’s install it. I’ll search for RankMath… perfect.
Right from the start, it gives us an introduction, which is useful, but it’s going to try to get you to make an account and probably pay them—don’t do that. I’m not exactly sure what else they’re offering, because, as I said, you’re only setting up two tags and one image. You don’t need to pay for that. So skip the account setup, go to advanced, and just proceed. You’ll see the pixel ratios here—save and continue. And that’s pretty much it. You can learn what each setting does, but if you just have a normal website, you probably don’t need to worry about it. Skip the rest and return to the dashboard.
Now the important part: go to your pages—starting with your front page, but you can do this for all of them. The RankMath plugin will have added a section at the top of each page. These options can be a bit confusing, with lots of icons and features. They try to help you optimize your content, but honestly, that part doesn’t really matter when it comes to what Google shows. What does matter is the snippet editor.
Just click “Edit Snippet,” and here you can write whatever you want.
If Google likes it—and it doesn’t always, but it should—it will show what you’ve written. You can set the title and the description. It might take up to three days to update in the search results, so be patient. For the description, ideally keep it around 150–160 characters. That’s it. You save it, and you’re done. It’s smart to do this for all your pages and blog posts, because any of them might show up in search results, and this way you at least have control over how they appear. That said, I personally find all of this stuff kind of useless.
Alright—thanks, and good luck!