How your business shows up in Google: titles, descriptions and headings

Last updated 14 October 2026

By the FocalScore team at Astrolabix LLC. First published 14 October 2026. Sources last checked October 2026.

The short answer

Give each page its own title that says what the page offers and who you are, a description that gives a searcher a reason to click, and one main heading that matches the page's subject. Write them for the person reading the search result, not for a search engine.

What the title, description and headings are

The page title is the <title> tag in the page's code. It is the text in the browser tab, and Google uses it as the main source for the clickable headline of your search result.
The meta description is a short summary in the page's code that visitors don't see on the page. Google may show it as the text under the headline when it describes the page better than a passage from the page itself.
Headings (H1, H2, H3) are the titles of the page and its sections. The H1 names the page's subject; H2s name its sections; H3s sit inside an H2. Screen readers let people jump between them, so the order matters to them as well as to search engines.

Why it matters to a small business

The title and description are most of what a searcher sees before deciding whether to visit you. A title that only says "Home", or the same title on each page, gives them nothing to choose you by, and tells Google little about which page answers which search. Google can rewrite a title or description it finds unhelpful, but it starts from what you wrote.

How the free scan decides

Page title tag fails when a title is missing, repeated on other pages or longer than 60 characters. Google sets no length limit; it cuts titles to fit the screen, so this is our line for keeping the important words visible.
Meta description fails when the description is missing or repeated, and Meta description length when it is likely to be cut short (over about 160 characters) or too short to be useful.
H1 & heading structure and One H1 per page fail when a page has no H1 or several; Heading hierarchy when headings skip a level, such as an H2 followed by an H4.
Per-page titles & descriptions runs the same title and description rules on the inner pages the scan read, not only the homepage.
Your title and description use the words your page is about compares the words your page uses most with its title and description, and fails when neither mentions any of them.

How to write them

The title

Lead with what the page offers, then your business name: "Emergency plumber in Yourtown | Your Business", not "Home | Your Business".
Write a different one for each page. A services page and a contact page are different results.
Keep it to 60 characters or fewer, so the start is never cut off.

The description

One or two plain sentences: what you do, for whom and where, and what the reader can do next ("Call for a free quote").
Put the main point in the first 120 characters, because phones show less.
Don't list keywords. The old keywords meta tag is not used by Google at all.

The headings

One H1 per page, stating its subject in words a customer would use.
H2 for each section, H3 inside an H2. Pick a heading level for its place in the outline, not for its size: change the size with the theme's styles instead.
Watch for a logo or a slogan set as a heading by the theme: it adds an H1 to each page without anyone choosing it.

Where to change them, by platform

WordPress: with an SEO plugin installed, each page and post has an "SEO title" and "meta description" box under the editor. Without one, the title comes from the page title and the site name in Settings › General, and there is no description.
Shopify: each product, collection and page has a "Search engine listing" section at the bottom of its editor, with the page title and meta description.
Wix and Squarespace: each page has SEO settings with the title and description, in the page's settings panel.
A hand-built site or ASP.NET: the <title> and <meta name="description" content="…"> tags sit in the page's <head>. On ASP.NET MVC they are usually in the shared layout (_Layout.cshtml), filled from ViewBag.Title; set a value in each view so pages don't all inherit the same one.

<head>
  <title>Emergency plumber in Yourtown | Your Business</title>
  <meta name="description" content="Burst pipe or no hot water? Local plumbers, open late. Call for a free quote.">
</head>

How to check yours

Run the free scan: the Search section lists each page it read with its title, description and headings, and says which ones are missing, repeated or too long. The sample report shows the layout. To see how Google currently shows a page, search for its address.

Checklist

Each page has its own title, leading with what the page offers.
Titles are 60 characters or fewer.
Each page has its own description, with the main point in the first 120 characters.
Each page has one H1, and headings go down a level at a time.
The words your page is about appear in its title or description.

What the free scan checks for this

These are the FocalScore checks that cover this guide's subject. Each one in your report says what it found, shows the evidence and gives the fix.

Page title tag
Meta description
H1 & heading structure
Heading hierarchy
Per-page titles & descriptions
One H1 per page
Meta description length
Your title and description use the words your page is about

Sources

Last checked October 2026. Documentation, settings and rules change; if one of these pages now says something different, it is right and this guide is out of date. Tell us at info@focalscore.com.