Website owners and bloggers often complain that they are not getting enough traffic from Google despite of being on the first page. In most of these cases the problem lies in the meta description. A poorly written description fails to grab the attention of the searchers and leads to poor click-through rates. If the problem sounds familiar then this article will help you craft better meta descriptions.
Be concise and keep it under 160 characters
The length of your meta description should be between 150 and 160 characters because search engines cut off anything longer than 160 characters. After getting truncated the text might become unclear and lose its effectiveness. Therefore, it is important that you pay special attention to character count while writing your meta descriptions. There is absolutely no need to be verbose. Just summarize your content in a clear and concise manner.
Make the meta description relevant and specific to the content in your page
Use descriptive words to connect with the target audience and let them know what they will get once they click on your site’s link. However, if you try to deceive people into clicking through, you will lose their trust and they will avoid your website in the future.
Include important keywords
Search engines normally highlight search terms that closely match the user’s query. Therefore, it is important to incorporate valuable keywords in the description in order to capture the attention of the searcher. However, you shouldn’t get carried away. If your meta description is just stuffed with keywords that have nothing to do with the actual content of the page, Google and other search engines might penalize your website. You should also keep in mind that search engines no longer take the meta description into account while calculating the ranking of a webpage.
Your language should be action-oriented
Think like the searcher in order to ensure that your meta description tells the visitor exactly what they will get after clicking. Ideally, the description should address an issue or problem your audience has. Alternatively, you can pose a question to grab their attention. If the question comes close to what they are expecting, they are more likely to click on the result.
A well-written meta description can improve your CTR by persuading potential clients to choose you over your competitors. Make sure you follow the guidelines given in this article.
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