How to write that perfect Meta Description
Jun201620

How to write that perfect Meta Description

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We'll help to improve your understanding of how to write a Meta Description which will help to support SEO and improve you CTR (Click Through Rate) to your website.

What is the Meta Description?

The meta description is a HTML tag that's hidden away from view, this tag allows you write a description about each webpage on your website. Many years ago, 2007 to be precise these used to help with search engine rankings (alongside the meta keyword tag) but these days are long gone.

If you view the source of your web page (Chrome ctrl+u) you'll more than likely see <meta name='description' content='...'>  in the HTML code somewhere close to the top of the page. That there is the meta description.

What do we use them for?

The meta description tag is a snippet used to summarise a web page’s content in search engine results. A well-written meta description won't place your website higher in search engine rankings, but a well thought out description will bring more clicks your way increasing CTR.

Below is an image which shows a Google search engine result page (SERP) for NW Design and the search term "leaflet design service". You can see the meta description for that page is displayed under the title and URL.

meta-description

Best Practices

Follow these simple rules and dominate meta description CTRs.

  • Keep it brief : Search engines truncate snippets longer than 160 characters, aim for around 150 characters to be safe or you'll risk your beautiful being cut off
  • Keep it accurate: Be sure that your meta description provides a good summary of your web page. A misrepresentation of what people will want to see will see your bounce rate skyrocket.
  • Keep it interesting: Try and word your meta descriptions so that they are easy to read yet draw people into what you're offering.
  • Keep it unique: Every individual page of your website should have a unique meta description. Don't duplicate or use the same meta description for more than one page on your website.
  • Use a call-to-action: Give your searchers more reason to click onto your website, "buy one get one free" or "Free 30 Day Trial" are good examples.
  • Include keywords: Your meta description should include relevant keywords that you hope your page will rank for. Google will sometimes make these words appear as bold helping your result stand out a little.
  • Don't use code: When you create your meta descriptions be sure to remember that this is a code free zone! Don't place any HTML elements or even special characters like © or ® should be avoided as these can look funny in search engine results.

If you require any more help with regards to SEO or websites advice please feel free to contact us. We offer free website audits designed to help you climb the ranks, we'd also love it if you can share this article.