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Meta, slugs, and the five-word anchor

The last mile. Four small rules that get skipped and then cost you clicks for the life of the page.

6 min read

Level 0

Curious

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Meta title

Keyword first, brand last, roughly 50 to 60 characters. Longer and it gets cut, and the part that gets cut is the end, which is where people put the useful bit.

Gets cut

  • "The Complete Guide to Inventory Forecasting for Small and Mid-Size Distributors in 2026"
  • Keyword buried at word six
  • Ninety characters
  • Reader sees: "The Complete Guide to Inventory Forecasting for Small and Mid…"

Fits

  • "Inventory Forecasting: A Distributor's Guide"
  • Keyword first
  • Forty-four characters
  • Reader sees all of it

Meta description

Under 160 characters, contains the keyword once, and says what the reader gets. It is ad copy, not a summary. "This article explores..." wastes your first six words on nothing.

Slug

Short, keyword-led, no dates, no numbers you will regret. best-inventory-software-2026 becomes a lie in January and you cannot fix it without a redirect.

Anchor text: five words, maximum

Every link, every time. Put the detail in the sentence around the link, not in the link itself.

Too long

  • "a study showing that 43% of distributors still take orders by phone"
  • "click here to read our complete guide to safety stock"
  • "https://example.com/blog/safety-stock-formula"

Five or fewer

  • "according to McKinsey"
  • "our safety stock guide"
  • "the formula in full"

Why the limit helps the prose too

A long anchor is usually a sentence that outsourced its meaning to a link. Forcing the anchor short forces the sentence to carry the fact itself, which is better writing whether or not anyone clicks.

Do this now

  1. 1

    Add the four rules to your CLAUDE.md as one block.

    Meta title: keyword first, brand last, 50-60 chars.
Meta description: under 160, keyword once, say what they get.
Slug: short, keyword-led, no years.
Anchors: 5 words max, every link. Detail goes in the prose.
  2. 2

    Run it over your last published post and count the characters.

    > Check the meta title, description, slug and every anchor
> in this article against the four rules. Report violations only.

    Asking for violations only stops it writing you a report about the things that were already fine.

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