As a content writer, the question may have often come to your mind; what is meta description and how to write it? Well, in this blog, I’m not going to show you how to make a perfect meta description for a blog post or a webpage. Instead, you’ll see the relevance of meta-description in content writing.
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What is meta description?
The meta description is a brief summary of a webpage’s content that appears on the Google search result pages. It usually lengths around 155-160 characters. It helps users get a concise idea about the page and its relevance to their search query.
As a content writer, you should learn how to create a meta description. This is an important step in optimizing your content for search engines. Besides, you should also ensure that the meta description accurately reflects the page’s content with relevant keywords. Additionally, it should be engaging and compelling to make the readers click on the link and visit the page.
Overall, a meta description serves as a “teaser” for the content on the webpage and helps to increase the click-through rate in search results. Which ultimately improves the content’s visibility and helps it rank better in search results.
What is a meta-description example?
Well, then, let me show you some examples from Google search results.
In the given picture below, I searched the query “what is meta description“, and Google gave me the results. Here you can see the page URL first, then the page title, and right after that, it’s the meta description of the page. To show the meta description example more clearly, I’ve marked it with a red border.
Results for the keyword – helpful content update.
Why do you need a meta description?
A meta description is essential for on-page SEO. It helps both Google and users understand what your web page is about. When google crawls your page, it looks at the title, URL, meta description, content, image alt text and other crucial things. And based on that, it indexes your page with preferred keywords.
If you have given a perfect meta description, the page will be quite easier for search engines to understand. Otherwise, Google will pick some lines from anywhere in your content.
What is the meta description character limit?
The ideal length of a meta description is between 155 to 160 characters, including the space. If the length exceeds 160, it will lose the other characters on the SERPs.
Hence, it’s important to keep your meta description within this character limit to ensure it is fully visible in the SERPs. Additionally, a well-written and informative meta description can help to increase click-through rates (CTR) and improve your website’s visibility in the search results.
Where should you put the meta description?
If you build your web pages through HTML coding, put the meta description inside the <head> section.
And for WordPress or Wix users, SEO tools (Yoast, Rankmath, etc.) allow you to write the meta description in a dedicated section. Besides, by using these tools, you can also write the SEO title and permalink.
For example, look at his screenshot of the Rankmath snippet editor. The red border area is for writing the meta description. Look carefully; you will see the character limit and other information in the picture.
Do meta descriptions matter?
Meta descriptions do matter as they summarize a webpage’s content for search engines and users. In addition, they help search engines understand the context and content of your webpage, which can influence its ranking in the search results.
Besides, meta descriptions can also increase the click-through rate (CTR) by providing a clear and concise content summary. As having a compelling meta description can entice users, it also plays a role in user engagement.
Therefore, it’s vital to ensure that meta descriptions are well-written and accurately represent the content of a webpage.
What if Google doesn’t like your meta description?
Sometimes, it happens when Google doesn’t like the meta description you’ve written for the web page. It happens due to some reasons like; poor quality, irrelevant to the topic, or so on.
In this situation, Google may choose to ignore it or select a part from anywhere of your content as a meta description. Well, Google can do this because of its intelligent algorithm, which can choose what should be a more relevant meta description for your page.
Hence, I’d suggest following all the guidelines for writing a meta description that perfectly represents your webpage or blog.
How do you write a meta description for SEO?
Here’s a quick guide you can use to write a meta description for your web page or blog posts. However, this is just a short tip, not a complete guide. You can check the HubSpot blog for writing a good meta description,
- Keep it concise: The meta descriptions should be around 155-160 characters. Excessive use of characters will not fit the SERPs, while less than 120 characters cannot correctly summarize the content.
- Make it relevant: The meta description should accurately reflect the webpage’s content. This will help search engines understand the page’s context and increase the chances of it appearing in the search results.
- Use keywords: Implementing relevant keywords into the meta description can help your page rank higher in the search results.
- Make it engaging: Write the meta description in such a compelling way that will entice users to click on the link.
- Test and optimize: Write more than one version of the meta description and see which one fits better. Then select the right one for the final implementation.