Small bits of text, big job
Before anyone reads a word of your website, they read your page title and description in Google. Those two lines are your shop window. If they are vague, generic or missing, people scroll past to a competitor, however good the page behind them is.
Writing them well for every page takes time most business owners do not have. This is exactly the kind of careful, repetitive job AI is good at, as long as it is set up to read your content properly first.
What each one does
| Item | Where people see it | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| SEO title | The blue headline in Google results, and the browser tab | Tell the searcher, at a glance, that this page answers their search |
| Meta description | The short paragraph under the title in Google results | Give them a reason to click: what they will find and why it suits them |
| Excerpt | Blog and news listings on your own site, some themes and social shares | Sum up the page so visitors browsing your site know what to open next |
All three are set per page. In WordPress, the SEO title and meta description usually live in an SEO plugin such as Yoast or Rank Math, and the excerpt sits in the page or post settings.
Why most small business sites get them wrong
Google is quietly telling us something: in a 2025 study of top-20 results, it changed the page title on 76% of pages. When it does, it is usually because the title is too long, too vague, stuffed with keywords or does not match what the page is really about.
The same patterns turn up on almost every small business website we look at:
- Left on autopilot. The SEO title is just the page name, such as “Home”, “Services” or “About us”.
- Copied across pages. One description pasted onto every page, which Google’s own guidance says isn’t helpful when those pages appear in results.
- Written for the business, not the searcher. “Welcome to Smith & Co” tells nobody what you do or where.
- Keyword lists. “Plumber, plumbing, Brentwood plumber, boiler” reads like spam to people and to Google.
- Guessed keywords. The words chosen are the ones the owner uses, not the ones customers actually type.
None of this is a lack of skill. With 20, 50 or 200 pages to cover, it is simply a lot of fiddly work, so it gets skipped.
How the DotScott tools do it
The DotScott tools do not write from a template. They read each page first, then write its title, description and excerpt around the words your customers are most likely to search.
- Read the whole page. Headings, body copy, services, prices and location are all taken in, so the AI understands what the page actually offers.
- Work out the searcher. Who lands on this page, and what are they trying to do: find a price, book a service, compare options or learn something?
- Match real search terms. The likely phrases are checked against search data, so the page targets what people type, such as “boiler service Brentwood”, rather than what we assume they type.
- Write all three to fit. A title short enough that Google is less likely to cut it, a description that gives a reason to click, and an excerpt that reads naturally on your own site.
- Check the whole site. Every page gets its own wording, so no two pages compete for the same search or share the same description.
- You approve it. Everything comes back as a draft for you to read, tweak and sign off before anything changes on your website.
The result is a set of titles and descriptions written the way a good copywriter would do it, page by page, but in a fraction of the time.
Before and after
Here is a typical example, for the boiler servicing page of a fictional heating engineer in Brentwood.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| SEO title | Services – Smith Heating | Boiler Servicing in Brentwood, Gas Safe Engineers |
| Meta description | Welcome to Smith Heating. We offer a wide range of services for all your needs. | Annual boiler service from a Gas Safe engineer in Brentwood. All makes covered, fixed price, and most visits booked within a week. |
| Excerpt | (blank, so WordPress shows the first lines of the page) | What a yearly boiler service includes, why it keeps your warranty valid, and how to book a local Gas Safe engineer. |
The “after” version names the service, the place and the reassurance people look for. Each line comes from what the page already says: the AI rewrites, it does not invent offers you do not make.
Going further: finding the searches you are missing
Better titles only help pages you already have. The bigger win is often finding the searches your website is not answering at all, and the same tools can do that keyword research for you.
| What we look for | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Missing terms | Things customers search for that your site never mentions, such as a service you offer but never named, or a nearby town you cover |
| Mismatched pages | A page that ranks for a search it was not written for, so the title and content are working against each other |
| Pages competing with each other | Two or more pages chasing the same search, which splits your chances instead of doubling them |
| Wording gaps | You say “commercial cleaning” but customers search “office cleaners”: same service, different words |
| Quick wins | Pages sitting just off page one, where a sharper title and a few added lines could lift them |
You get back a plain-English list: which pages to improve, which new pages are worth creating, and which words to use. From there we can rewrite the affected titles and descriptions in the same pass.
What AI will not do for you
AI makes this job fast, but it is not magic, and it is worth being clear about the limits.
- Google still has the final say. Even a well-written title can be changed in results. Good titles simply make that less likely, and make Google’s version closer to yours.
- It cannot fix a thin page. If a page says very little, the best title in the world will not make it rank. Sometimes the right answer is to improve the page first.
- It does not know your business like you do. Your prices, promises and tone of voice need a human check. That is why every suggestion comes back as a draft for your approval.
- It is not a one-off. As you add pages, change services or see new searches appear, the titles and keyword checks are worth revisiting every few months.
Want this done for your website?
DotScott can review your site, rewrite the titles, descriptions and excerpts for every page, and run a keyword check to show you the searches you are missing. Or, if you would rather do it yourself, we can train you and your team to use AI for it with confidence.
Book a free chat and we will look at a few of your pages together.
Sources
- John McAlpin, Google changed 76% of title tags in Q1 2025, Search Engine Land
- Google Search Central, Control your snippets in search results