Many things have changed over the past years, and of course, search engine optimisation (SEO) is no exception. As SEO evolves, its best practices also change, which means yesterday’s good SEO strategy may not work well today nor tomorrow.
And that leaves many people using SEO for their business in questions about what they do. One of the significant doubts and confusions they wonder about is the meta description.
The meta description is a summary of what the page’s content is all about. You can see that appear on search results. Take this picture below as a sample of what meta description looks like:
Does Meta Description Affect SEO?
As explained by Google, the meta description does not directly affect search engine rankings or web page visibility. It does, however, help out in the clickthrough rate (CTR) of a page, which is a factor that has a concern in SEO.
SEO is like being in an argument with others. Everything has to have a long and winding road going everywhere but still goes back to the same point. That is why with SEO, it is vital to do your testing and experiments first before you jump to conclusions and follow everything you see online.
How Is Meta Description Important for SEO?
The meta description is like a movie teaser—you could watch it to find out the premise of a soon-to-be-released film. The same goes for meta descriptions. Reading a meta description is a perfect way to learn quickly what a web page is all about.
If the searcher finds it aligns with their search intent, they would consider clicking it. And the higher the CTR of that web page, the more likely it would soar high on search engine result pages (SERPs).
According to Backlinko, having a meta description helps drive 5.8% more clicks than those web pages without it. Therefore, if you want your potential customers to click your web page, make sure to add a meta description to your digital marketing campaign that you would be posting on your website.
What Are the Role of Keywords In the Meta Description?
The keywords in the meta description have the same role as the other types of content materials. They help describe the topic written on the web page. Also, the search engines highlight keywords on SERPs to help searchers find the information that they are looking for.
When adding keywords in the meta description, pair them with the pages they are related to. For example, if you have a keyword like “Cat Food”, you should link to a page that offers cat food.
Also, the ideal amount of keywords you should add in the meta description is one or two keywords per phrase. Make sure the keywords you are adding are relevant to the digital marketing campaign of the web page.
Another thing you should also mind besides the meta description is the meta title. It is the headline of the content of a web page that appears blue on SERPs. Take a look at the picture above and see what a meta title looks like on search engines.
What Is the Character Count Limit?
Similar to social media platforms, there is also a character count limit in the meta title and meta description.
Currently, you could write up to 60 characters for the meta title and up to 160 characters for the meta description. But keep in mind that some of them might not be visible in mobile searches since search engines only allow 130 characters to appear.
Nevertheless, here are the blog pages that have descriptions that go past 150+ characters.
To guarantee your meta description would appear on SERPs entirely, the safest limit is 150 characters. Most experts in SEO services often play the character count limit safer between the range of 150 to 155 characters.
How to Write the Meta Description?
When writing a meta description, the rules are simple. Keep the phrases as brief as possible but be descriptive. Make sure the readers would understand the summary content of a web page.
Also, try not to write the same type of meta description for your pages since it could be very dangerous. The search engine crawlers might consider the content as duplicate. That is why you should create a unique description for each of your pages.
Remember, when doing SEO for your website, it always involves a bit of work.
However, if writing a meta description is not your cup of tea, you may use these tools. Doing so should help make your SEO process a lot easier.
Also, if Google does not use your meta description, that’s okay. They would still see the content and know if it has related keywords on it.
For more information about meta descriptions, contact our digital marketing agency in Singapore at 6391-0930.