Meta Descriptions, as Told By a Meta-Description-Enthusiast

You may think you’re optimizing all SEO strategies to boost your content, but are you utilizing meta descriptions? As a digital marketing strategy that can advance your SEO efforts by summarizing content into one concise snippet, drawing users in, and ultimately maximizing click-through rates, meta descriptions will be your new favorite strategy. If you’re not a Meta-Description-Enthusiast like I am quite yet, I will break down all the reasons why you should be, and why your website needs these.

What is a Meta Description?

A meta description is an HTML feature that supplies a short summary of your website’s content. Meta descriptions are located directly below the link that populates after searching something through Google on the search engine results (SERP) page.

Wondering what exactly a meta description looks like? Although length may vary, a general rule of thumb for your meta descriptions is to be between 75 and 155 characters. Google recently expanded the character limit, allowing them to be a bit longer than before.

Why You Should Use Meta Descriptions

Think of meta descriptions as text for an organic ad, sort of like a mini digital billboard. By including keywords that summarize your webpage for users browsing the internet, your text will drive traffic to your site by both catching users’ attention and informing them of your good or service.

By writing an eye-catching rundown of what your webpage features, you can increase click-through rates and traffic to your site. Sounds easy, right? It is, but it is also important to ensure that you keep things like length, keywords, and wording in mind when writing meta descriptions.

Important Things to Consider When Writing Meta Descriptions

Ideally, your meta description should always include two things:

• Why: What good or service can you provide them? Why the user could benefit from visiting your site.
• How: Now that you caught their attention, they need to know how to get involved. Include a call to action.

A call to action is essential in writing a good meta description. As important as catching the user’s attention is, their interest won’t mean much if they’re left wondering how to get involved. Including action-driven words or phrases such as “click here!”, “check this out!”, or “learn more!” indicate the next step that the user should take.

Another simple tip I have for you is to keep your audience in mind, and even try to put yourself in their shoes. If you were browsing the web, what would catch your attention? What sort of call to action would compel you to take the next step? If you’re bored by your meta description, your audience will be too. If appropriate, consider incorporating uniqueness or humor to make your meta description stand out.

Utilize Meta Description Tools

Considering the length of your meta description is crucial, but checking character and word count can be tedious. Try using a tool such as SeoMofo to easily gauge these factors and check out a preview of what your final meta description will look like!

Organizing your thoughts onto a Google or Excel sheet can help in creating meta descriptions. Jotting down keywords and title tags is a simple step that can give you a general idea of what to include in your meta description

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, by now you’re just as much of a Meta-Description-Enthusiast as I am. These meta description tips should give you an idea of how you can use them as a tool to improve SEO efforts and drive traffic to your webpage. Don’t forget to include keywords, keep your audience in mind, and include a call to action!