Have you climbed to the top of Google search results? You’ve done a great job!
But has it helped you to drive more traffic to your website? If your answer is “no,” we highly suggest you write new meta descriptions. Effective meta descriptions will “advertise” your content and increase the click-through rate.
Are you ready to boost your SEO efforts? Here are eight tips for you.
Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash
What is a meta description, exactly?
A meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page. It’s a short text that users see under the title tag on the search results page.
Most users read meta descriptions before visiting a website. If the meta description is written in the right way, it positively influences click-through rates.
Make it relevant
Never add irrelevant information to your meta description just to grab the user’s attention. It will do you more harm than good.
Catchy phrases could help you attract more visitors to your website, but that will not improve your website ranking. Once users notice that web content doesn’t match the meta description, they will leave your website. That will lead to a drastic increase in the bounce rate and a ranking drop.
For achieving positive results, keep your meta description relevant to the content. Describe your webpage as precisely as possible – users and Google will appreciate your effort.
Write unique meta description for every page
Do you know what mistake website owners tend to make? They use the same meta description for multiple pages.
As you know, Google values the uniqueness of the content. So it’s crucially important to write unique meta descriptions for each web page.
Are you a busy person and don’t have time for writing? Delegate this task to professionals. Visit websites of academic writing companies or freelance platforms and find experts who can assist you.
Keep it under 160 characters
When users browse a search results page, they see only the first 160 characters of the meta description. Therefore, you should ensure that the character count of your meta description does not exceed this limit.
Basically, there is no such thing as a “perfect length of the meta description.” If your copy is not too long and not too short and provides relevant information to the users, it will work effectively.
Use focus keywords wisely
If your web page targets one or two keywords, you should add these keywords to your meta description. But if your web page targets long-tail traffic (more than three keywords), you can let the search engines populate a meta description themselves. Search engines will do all the work for you and display the keywords and surrounding phrases that are relevant to the user’s search query.
Need to see an example? Take a look at the following screenshot. Google analyzes the user’s search query and displays relevant keywords (not exact-match keywords!) with surrounding text as a meta description.
Intrigue and engage your users
Don’t list all the key points of your article in the meta description. Try to intrigue and engage your users. Convince them that your web page contains the information they are looking for and make them want to visit your website and read the entire article.
If you add too many details to your meta description, you will make it look complex and hard to read. That will scare away users and decrease the click-through rate.
Improve the readability
Users don’t read meta descriptions, they scan them quickly to find the relevant information. If you want to get your website noticed, you should improve the text readability and make your meta descriptions easy to scan through. Here are a few writing tips for you:
- Keep your sentences short and concise
- Avoid the passive voice
- Don’t use jargon and sophisticated words
- Don’t overuse adverbs
Be aware of your competitor’s SEO tactics
Whatever niche you work in, you should know your competitors and be aware of their SEO tactics. It will allow you to design a competitive strategy and create more effective descriptions.
Take a look at meta descriptions written by your competitors and analyze their wording, length, structure, and keyword usage. Then describe your web page in a way it will stand out from the pack. Help users to distinguish your website from other websites displayed on the search results page, and you will double the CTR.
Understand user intent
Do you want to drive more traffic to your website? Try to understand user intent first.
You know what content users are searching for. And that’s great. Now you need to go the extra mile and figure out WHY users are doing it:
- Users are researching a new topic/product
- Users are considering buying a specific product
- Users are deciding on what product to buy and how to buy it.
Once you understand users’ goals, you will find the right words to grab their attention and direct them to your website. You will create a more appealing meta description and increase the click-through rate.
Wrapping it up
Meta descriptions are an essential part of the overall user experience of your website. So make sure that you are using the right SEO tactics to create them.
Keep improving your writing, and do your best to engage your prospective visitors. Your hard work will be rewarded with high traffic and fresh new sales leads.
tq for information
I was searching this, and here I got this blog, It will help me to write an attractive meta description. Thank you.
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