How To Write Compelling Meta Descriptions For SEO

Are you able to create effective meta descriptions for your website?

If you have done SEO for your website, then you might have considered every single search engine ranking factor in-detail isn’t?

Now, it’s time to focus on “Meta Descriptions”. Even though, it is not one of the ranking factors of search engines, still it has ability to directly affect on your website’s CTR.

First, What are Meta Tags?

Meta Tags are HTML elements that are meant to provide concise information about the webpage to the search engines. These tags are present in section of HTML code.

Important meta tags include: Title Tags, Meta Description, Meta Robots, Meta Keywords and more.

What is a Meta Description?

Meta Description is the snippet, that is meant to provide brief description of the webpage. This description is limited to 160 characters, and primarily appears on search engines under the URL of the webpage.

These descriptions also appear on social media sharing and also on other websites when page is shared.

Where to Include Meta Description?

Meta Description is one of Meta attributes that comes in the Head section of the HTML code, Here is the code:

Is Meta Description a Ranking Factor?

NO! Meta Description is not a ranking factor as stated by Google. But, It has greater potential to gain more clicks for webpages as they appear on search engines and users can decide whether to click or not, seeing the description. So, be tactful while writing these descriptions, as Click-Through-Rate can be affected.

Effective Ways to Create Meta Descriptions that Get More Clicks

Most of you will be using the popular WordPress plugin- Yoast. I think you’ll find this interesting how to use Yoast in a clever way.

Watch the video below:

Know the Limit: Meta description should be between 135 – 160 characters. Description that exceeds the limit, search engine cuts it down. You wouldn’t want your users to read an incomplete sentence is it? The optimal limit is 135 characters and see through that keywords are placed in the beginning.

Keywords Should be Included: When meta description is not a ranking factor what is the need of including the keywords in the description? Well, when users search on Google using keywords, Google highlights the keywords in the description also, this is one more factor depending on which user can click on the link. So, include primary keyword in the description, mostly in the beginning as recommended.

Make it Readable & Conversational: Meta Description is like an advert of your webpage, so make it readable and make sure it is not stuffed with keywords. Let your descriptions be conversational, like include “you” and make a direct statement and let the users know why you want them to visit your webpage.

Don’t Leave A Blank: Always include the descriptions, if you leave meta description blank, search engines would take content from the page. Sometimes they may also display title, keywords or any random suitable content. So, don’t take up chances and include crisp description for every page of your website.

Don’t Duplicate: Every page should have a unique description, similarly to as that of page titles. If many pages are having the same description, it may affect your search rankings.

Make It Compelling: Not only search engines, but social media and other channels also show up the descriptions, so write a compelling one. Include an call-to-action word, make an offer, make it a complete ~160 characters of advert of your page.

So, that’s everything you need to know about meta descriptions. Create amazing clickable, compelling, crisp and concise descriptions for your pages, which would provoke users to click on the links on search engines and other sources.

How do you write your descriptions? Let us know in the comment section below!

About the author 

Jeremy Ley

Jeremy Ley went from struggling, slaving away at the J-O-B as wireless sales rep to starting and running a successful digital marketing business.  In his spare time he enjoys the digital lifestyle, working out, and writing incredible bios. 

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