Writing meta descriptions for SEO
What are meta tags?
Meta tags are HTML elements that provide information about a webpage for search engines and website visitors.
There are two elements that must be placed as tags in the <head> section of a HTML document. These elements are:
Title tag
Meta description
What is a meta description?
It’s the short paragraph of text placed in the HTML of a webpage that describes its content.
Crucially, it’s what will appear under your page’s URL in the search results. This is also known as a snippet. It’s an opportunity to describe / sell the site or page to potential visitors.
The meta description also appear when people share your articles across different websites and social channels.
<head>
<meta name=”description” content=”Here is a precise description of my awesome webpage.”>
</head>
You should have complete control of your meta description in your CMS, particularly if you’re using WordPress.
Why are meta descriptions important?
It helps the searcher to decide whether or not to visit your page as they see it in search results.
The more descriptive and alluring the description, the more likely it is to attract clicks.
Are meta descriptions used for ranking?
Google has stated that meta descriptions are NOT used for ranking.
The quality and relevance of the description will have an influence click-through rate.
A meta description checklist
- Keywords: make sure your most important keywords from the page show up in the meta description.
- Treat the meta description like an advert for your web-page.
- The description MUST matche the content on the page.
- A meta description should be no longer than 135 – 160 characters long (although Google has recently been testing longer snippets so this could change in future). Any longer and search engines will chop the end off, so make sure any important keywords are nearer the front.
- Do not duplicate meta descriptions: As with title tags, the meta descriptions must be written differently for every page. Google could penalise you for duplicating your meta descriptions en masse.
- Consider using rich snippets.
Writing meta descriptions for SEO
