An effective on-page SEO strategy requires title tags. Yet, for the title to deliver maximum results, it needs to be matched up with another element: a meta description. When your webpages fail to include a strong SEO meta description, this will lead to your website missing out on potential visitors and Google ranking points.
What is a meta description?
First things first, let’s take the time to gain a full understanding of meta descriptions and how they function. In simple terms, the meta description is utilized to describe the contents of a specific webpage. In search results, this description is found directly below the meta title (title tag). As the meta description length tends to hit the ceiling at 160 characters, there’s not much room to add detailed information.
Going back to a previous point, you may be wondering, ‘What is a meta title?’ This title is used to signal to both users and search engines the content of your webpage. As for the meta title length, it is highly recommended for it to fall sweetly between the 50-60 characters mark. The following image demonstrates a strong meta title example:
The image also shows how the meta title and description work together. This combination supplies users with the correct details about the page. It also opens the door to greater approval from search engines. If you optimize these two components, Google has a better idea of what your webpages contain – and appealing to the Google algorithm is the key to achieving a strong search ranking.
Creating and editing a meta description tag
To create and edit a meta description, one option is to do this via the HTML code for a specific page. Simply find the meta description HTML – situated between the <head> tags – and add/change the text.
If you don’t fancy going the direct route, your website building platform of choice should make it easy enough to edit the meta description. While it’s different for each platform, let’s go with WordPress as an example. All you have to do is download a suitable plugin such as Yoast. Once this is installed, go to the Yoast section underneath the page or post, and alter the meta description in whatever way you desire.
What’s the ideal meta description length?
For those new to the game, one of the big questions revolves around how long should a meta description be to generate optimum results. As a starting point, you will want to understand the meta description character limit.
Now, this might come as a surprise, but there is no actual limit on the meta description. It can be any length. However, don’t view this as the green light to produce an essay for your description. Based on Google meta description length guidelines, the target is for the description to fall between 100 and 150 characters. If it extends beyond 150 characters, the excess text is likely to be cut off from view.
If you’re unsure about the length, you can utilize a meta description length checker tool. An easier method would be to open up Microsoft Word, paste the description onto a document, and open the “Word Count” dialog box to see how many characters it contains.
Meta description: best practices
It’s true: a meta description is far from the biggest factor in gaining a high search engine ranking. Nevertheless, it still has a part to play for any effective SEO campaign. If you produce an engaging description, this can be the difference between a searcher opting for your website rather than a different one that shows up in search results. Plus, Google rewards attentive keyword placement.
Want to know how to write a good meta description? To do this, there are a few different practices to follow.
Select the right keywords
The first step is to conduct some keyword research and find the right search terms to build the description around. As well as the main target keyword, attempt to incorporate a couple other secondary keywords into the description.
Furthermore, look to add common key phrases. When some enters into Google these phrases, they will show up in bold in your description. It’s a minor point, yes, but always look for ways to stand out from the competition.
Entertain your audience
When it comes to knowing how to write meta descriptions, keep in mind you have to captivate potential visitors. Appealing to search engines with keywords is important, yes, but this shouldn’t be sacrificed for a description that gets real people clicking.
So, what’s an effective meta description example? Take into account the following pointers:
- Pack in info: Even if you have to abbreviate, try and stuff as many details as possible into the description.
- Add personality: Avoid being overly robotic and try to inject some personality into the description.
- Don’t sacrifice grammar: Always ensure your description is grammatically correct. You may try and overlook certain grammar aspects to meet the character count limit, but this will make the description appear unprofessional.
Call to action
When you look at other SEO description examples, you will spot a general theme: they all tend to utilize a call to action. After all, a successful Google meta description has to entice people to take action and click on the website link – a strong CTA does that job.
Don’t go overboard
The SEO description length should sit at 150 characters or below. That has already been established. Yet don’t feel it’s mandatory to take your description to the character limit. If you can get the work done in 100 characters, there’s no need to fluff it up.
In conclusion
Whether you’re producing YouTube content or gaining backlinks, there are many different components to ponder for your SEO campaign. As highlighted in this guide, the SEO page description is one of these components. Writing meta descriptions that are compelling for both Google and your audience is vital for your on-page SEO efforts.
