There is so much of buzz about how Meta description affects the SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page(s)). We first begin by understanding what is a Meta description?
It is a specific description of what your content comprises of in the most summarized way. It gives a snippet view of your web page content for each of your post.
In this article, you will learn how to write effective and compelling description to improve the search results of your web pages and drive traffic to your website through simple steps.
A relevant and well written description always attracts audiences to browse through your pages. It not only improves your website traffic but also improves your click trough rate. Meta description are kind of first entry to your webpages or rather website. A new audience will gaze through your content title and description and would decide if they should click on your url. If you have great content to offer to them, then they would definitely be a returning visitor. So, giving appropriate meat description should be an essential part of your SEO practices.
Also read: On Page SEO: Various Ways to Optimize it
Here are some of the rules that you should follow while giving a compelling description:
1) Limit the Meta Description to 150-160 characters
Do remember I am mentioning characters and not words, so your description should be as concise as possible. Remember not to stuff too many things in the Meta description. Try to give what would look most relevant to your audience. Try to read your meta description as an audience and analyze if you would interested to visit the webpage after reading it. Do not think first of the SERP, it will follow up with the traffic that you generate.
2) Do not use auto generated meta description
If auto generated thing would have so effective, by now we would have something like ‘Auto Generated Content’ tool. It would have been so much easier that we would give a few words/ description for our content and the tool would generate quality content for us. But such is not the case till now. We still have to think about how we would write our content and ensure that the quality of the content is intact. If such hard work is needed for the content then similar efforts are required for the description too. Consider each content of yours as an asset and try to give your valuable time to it. So, instead of looking for a shortcut, do some research and try to write the most appropriate description for your posts.
3) Write meta description that would make the most sense to your audience
By this, I do not mean that you should make some false promises through your description or use flowery words to attract the audience, rather give your audience a reason as to why they should read your post. Your meta description should be written in such a way that the user would generate a curiosity to click the url of your webpages.
4) Do some very good R & D on your post before writing a meta description
Google gives you the power to search for anything over the web. It is very unlikely that the topic on which you have written has not been written by others in some way or the other. You content may of course be unique, but topics may match in some way. So make use of the searches and try to review how other people write the description that rank them higher in the Google. You may also observe which descriptions seem more attractive to you for which you would click the url. Doing such kind of R & D is very helpful in understanding how things work for each url. In this process, you might learn some other things too. Once you have done your part of the research, you will surely be able to come up with some compelling description for each of your post.
5) It’s all about improving the SEO of your website
It doesn’t matter how much weightage meta description have on SERP. If there is even 1% chance that such description will help me in improving the SEO of my website and give me better ranking, I would rather go for it. So, do not shy away from investing your time in writing good and effective meta description. As a beginner, you may start with phrases like:
- A complete guide to writing……
- Learn how to………
- Discover how……
- Explore you way to……
- This is a quick and comprehensive guide that……..
Write what seems the most appropriate to you without misguiding your audience. Always focus on greater customer experience.