Meta descriptions are important to get right on your pages to help with increasing traffic to your website, from relevant search queries on Google and other search engines. Providing searchers with the right information to quickly decide whether to click through to your web page.
Our blog post will explain further exactly what a meta description is and where in the Google search results a user would see this. Along with the importance of writing meta descriptions effectively and tips and advice on how to do this.
Taking the time to write concise, compelling and relevant meta descriptions for your important pages is worthwhile doing.
A meta description helps searchers to know exactly what to expect if they click through to the web page and if you are likely to solve their problem. It can also be used to prompt them to take action. First lets look at what a meta description is.
What Is A Meta Description?
The meta description is a short snippet of text which is seen below the main search title shown in blue within the search results. This is typically a sentence or two of text which ties into the primary keyword that you are wishing to focus on for a search query.
The length of text that appears can vary depending on the device used due to the pixel area available which Google uses to determine how much will show. For example, will likely be less characters displayed from a mobile device versus desktop.
It is generally recommended for the meta description length to be below 160 characters. To be on the safe side then the most important information should feature in the first sentence.
Below we will cover tips and advice for what is useful to include within your meta description and for what type of web page such as homepage, category pages and product pages. To note, this will differ due to the searcher seeing the page within the search results for different purposes.
Such as the user could be at a browsing stage typically relevant for category pages or further along the sales funnel and ready to buy, so including a call to action is relevant for product pages on your website.
Benefits To Including Meta Descriptions
Whilst writing meta descriptions doesn’t have a direct impact on your SEO rankings on Google search results or other search engines. It is still part of good SEO practice for having effective on-page SEO, as part of your overall SEO strategy.
Using a good meta description can help your page to stand out ahead of your competitors in the search engine results page to compel a user to click through to the web page.
As it can provide them with unique, relevant and persuasive detail on how you can help them and what to expect from the page. Therefore taking time to write meta descriptions can help to increase your click through rate and also in part help to increase your conversion rates too when done effectively.
When the description uses the right relevant information it can greatly help to entice users to your website to find out more.
How To Write A Good Meta Description
With it being limited characters which are displayed in the search engine for the user’s search query, it is important to make the most of that text to achieve the right meta description.
Firstly ensuring to use the main target keyword you would be wishing to appear in the search result for is essential. It is most effective to ensure any keywords used are done so in a natural and organic way, so it comes across genuine, makes sense and flows easily when reading the description.
Often if a page description is crammed with too many keywords it can be damaging for the click through rate. Having a bad meta description can be more damaging than not having one at all.
It is worth taking the time to make sure it is done correctly to suit your target keywords and what a user is looking for, to provide a good user experience.
Provide A Solution
Building on the above for an effective meta description ensure it encapsulates how you can solve their search query. Give them reason to click onto your web page in the organic traffic results on Google ahead of other options.
Do some competitor research and search analysis to understand in more depth each search term and what users are likely needing help with or looking for. This will help to give knowledge to compile unique descriptions for your pages.
Good meta descriptions give a clear and concise summary of what to expect on the page’s content.
Therefore ensure the page reflects what describing and offering, otherwise if it doesn’t follow through to give them the suggested solution it can lead to them clicking away from your website.
Call To Action
Particularly for product pages or other pages where your goal is to get a user to take action. Then recommend including a compelling call to action. This should be direct and enticing, and potentially with urgency to not miss out.
For example this could be ‘shop now’, ‘sign up today’ or ‘free shipping for limited time only’.
Above works well for product pages as usually the buyer intent once on these pages is high. However for category pages such as ‘mens shoes’ the user’s query will likely be in the browsing stage of the sales journey.
Therefore call to actions should bear this in mind. Examples include ‘Explore our range’, ‘Browse our collection’ or ‘Discover more’.
Ultimately the meta description is an extension of your business and should be treated as a pitch to potential customers when they shop online. Good descriptions use relevant call to actions for their popular pages to help entice users to click through.
Regular Audit
Meta description text should have a unique description where possible, therefore having a site audit to establish if have many duplicate meta descriptions or also if missing meta descriptions.
This will help to put a plan together to ensure using unique meta descriptions and not missing off any that would be needed for popular pages, such as those which would have high search traffic and search intent. Whilst making sure pages don’t use the same meta description.
It is recommended to regularly review so can achieve better meta descriptions which reflect the page content, are compelling and persuasive to encourage users to click through to your page in Google’s search results.
Also as we mentioned above take time to look at what meta description shows for your main competitors and for other pages for popular search terms. This will help to cross compare with your own to make sure using a relevant meta description that will appeal to search engine users.
How Can We Help?
We hope our blog post was useful to provide more detail on what makes a great meta description and why it is important for any business to get right.
Having effective meta descriptions along with other SEO best practices can help to increase traffic to your website, and ultimately improve your conversions.
At 1PCS Creative we have been providing SEO strategies and campaigns for our clients for over 20 years. Please feel free to get in touch to see how we can help to improve your SEO efforts and provide recommendations to help.
Ben Webster
Creative director at 1PCS. Addicted to design, SEO, pizza and helping companies big and small succeed online.