Here are our top tips on how to write better meta descriptions to get more customers.
When you conduct a search online, what result do you decide to click on?
The page title and meta description play a huge part in deciding what you will click on.
This is the essence of a meta description – getting a searcher to click on your web page.
Since 2009 Google has said that meta descriptions are not one of their ranking factors. But there are a number of ways to improve your website’s performance with a well-written meta description. It can be edited to show what a web page is all about and encourage searchers to click through to your web page.
What is a meta description?
A meta description is a brief summary of what a web page is about.
A meta description is metadata – code on your website that is not actually visible by visitors when looking at your webpage.
A meta description is the descriptive text shown under the page title on a search engine results page, telling your visitors and search engines what your web page is about, what they can find on that page, how that page can help them etc
In what ways can a meta description help your website?
They help you get more traffic to your website, if you have a compelling meta description shown in the search results, they are much more likely to click on it.
A meta description gives the right people the right information at the right time.
A great meta description can get people to click on your link even if below another link on a search engine results page.
Meta descriptions are not only used by search engines, they are also displayed on social media such as Facebook when a link is posted on there – so you can get more traffic from social media to your website with a good meta description.
Meta descriptions are important because they are going to increase the number of people seeing your web page in search results and clicking through to your web page. It is the visitors that you want – it is all well and good being highly ranked in Google but ultimately it is the visitors you want going to your web page – if they don’t go to your web page you are not going to convert those visitors into buying customers.
The easiest way to see a web pages meta description is to right click your mouse on a web page and choose ‘view page source’ – this shows the code of the web page.
What ‘rules’ should be followed when writing meta descriptions?
Despite what you may see in the Google search engine results pages (SERPS) you should try to limit the meta description tag to using 140-160 characters or spaces – if longer than this yo,ur meta description may well be cut short and the end replaced with ellipses (three dots …) representing an omission.
Google does not actually use a character count for meta descriptions but uses a pixel length
If you have more ‘I’s in your meta description you will get more characters in than if you have more ‘W’s! 730 – 900 pixels is quite difficult to track!
Google also use different pixel spaces allowed for meta descriptions depending upon if the search is on a mobile or a desktop computer.
Check your page titles in an online pixel checker to see what they should look like – such as https://totheweb.com/learning_center/tool-test-google-title-meta-description-lengths/
Sometimes you will see a meta description in the search results that is much longer than 160 characters – these are normally extracts of the text taken from the web page and by Google, rather than the actual meta description of the page.
Generally, you want to be in charge of what is shown on search engine results pages – as much as you can! – so keep those meta descriptions within the character range shown above.
What To Write In A Meta Description
You want to spend some time writing some compelling words, previewing the content and giving the reader a reason why they should give your content a read.
Give them a clear benefit on why they should read your web page – be informative and convey its value to your viewers.
Treat your meta description like an Ad – entice clicks.
When you search on Google for something, say web designer – that phrase will be highlighted in bold by Google in the meta description in the snippet shown, so you should include that ‘web designer’ keyword in your meta description.
As well as the keyword you want to rank for, the meta description should try and entice the click from the searcher, by providing information about the ‘web designer’ to convince the searcher that this web page will provide them what they are looking for.
Having the keyword or search phrase the searcher is using in the meta description because those are the things your audience is looking for and you want to talk in your audience’s language.
Outlining your USP (unique selling point) is a great way to entice clicks – eg ‘Free Same-day Quotation For ….’ – the visitor will think great that is what I am looking for and click to find out more.
In meta descriptions, you want to stand out and give people reasons to click on your webpage rather than someone else’s.
Having your keyword or search phrase that the user is looking for at the start of the meta description helps the searcher recognise that this web page is what they are looking for, and they say ‘right that’s what I am looking for let’s go’ and they click on to your web page.
Try to Understand your searchers intent.
When crafting a meta description try to understand your users intent.
Are they looking for information on how to do something or are they looking with commercial intent to buy a product or use a service or something else?
Craft your meta description to suit their intent – ‘10 ways to skin a rabbit’ – they are looking for how to skin a rabbit for their meal or ‘freshly prepared rabbit for your meal’ – they are looking to buy a rabbit already skinned for their meal.
No two pages should have the same meta description (as no two pages should have the same title tag) as no two pages on your website should be the same
Jump Links
Although not part of the meta description as such, on search engine results pages sometimes Goole includes ‘Jump Links’ from the content on your webpage, underneath the ‘meta description’ shown on the SERPS results.
These Jump Links are taken from the table of contents, with links to different sections on your web page.
If your web page contains a lot of content that could make use of a table on content at the beginning of the web page, then using a table of content can get these jump links showing under your meta description, making your webpage search result entry that much bigger and more attractive to click.
Are meta descriptions essential?
Not always – for example, Wikipedia does not use meta descriptions.
Goole is not obliged by law to use your meta description, even though you have spent your valuable time formulation a great meta description, Google sometimes chooses not to use your meta description, and instead will extract a section of text from your webpage and use that as their chosen meta description.
Because Google does this, there is talk out there in the search engine community, that it may be better not to provide a meta description, and let Google choose what it wants (as it is going to do that anyway!). Let’s hope evil Google chooses an enticing section of text to encourage searchers to click on your web page.
Of course, Google is not the only search engine out there, although it is certainly the biggest, and other search engines will use the meta description that you craft.
Only Google knows why it would choose not to use your meta description, maybe it is not relevant to the search query, maybe it is too spammy filled with keywords, maybe it is over optimised. In a similar vein, Google can also choose to change your meta title.
If Google chooses not to use your meta description, you can go back in and rewrite it, keeping it under 140 characters, making it less spammy etc – rewrite it in a different way and Google may well choose to use it.
Do Not Set And Forget Meta Descriptions
Once you have crafted what you think is the ‘perfect’ meta description, we advise revisiting it occasionally (along with your page titles), change them up and see this helps you get more traffic – see if you can improve them. Have a look at click through data from Google Search Console and you might be able to improve the ‘perfect’ meta description. See if click through rates improve, if not change it back or maybe revise it again.
Summary
We hope this helps explain what Meat Description are – a brief summary of what your webpage is about – use them to entice clicks from your visitors – click on the button below if you need any more help.
