There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to meta descriptions and SEO. Do they affect search engine rankings? Is it worth spending the time to write a good meta description?
The meta description is a snippet of up to about 155 characters, which summarizes a page’s content. Search engines show it in search results mostly when the searched-for phrase is within the description. So optimizing it is crucial for on-page SEO. In this post, SEO Vineyard will we will explain discuss how Meta Descriptions help your SEO.
Meta Descriptions Act as Organic Ads
When SEO meta descriptions appear on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) and social media feeds, they act as a small promo for the webpage. The copy gives marketers an opportunity to promote the page and tell readers why they should click on it.
Targets the Right Customers
Search engines increasingly value a good user experience, and that includes making sure that your site satisfies a user’s query as best as it possibly can. Meta Descriptions help with this by making sure that the information searchers need to know about your site is displayed upfront in a concise and useful fashion. By targeting the right customers with your Meta Description you will also lower your Bounce Rate. Bounce rates are important because they might indicate that the page content is irrelevant, or confusing to your site visitors. If your bounce rate is high it will lower your SEO ranking.
How do you write a Meta Description?
Now that we’ve established that they matter, how do you write a good meta description?
- Make sure it’s an accurate description – Your copy should accurately describe the page’s content. Users should gain a brief understanding of the information that can be found on the webpage. Thus providing a consistent user experience from search engine results to the landing page on your website.
- Make sure you are using the same Keyphrase – Here at SEO Vineyard we research the top Keyphrases for the copy on our website. This Keyphrase needs to be in your Meta Desciprtion.
- Inspire curiosity – Meta descriptions shouldn’t reveal everything. They should give just enough information to indicate page relevancy. But not provide so much information that there’s no reason to click through to your website’s landing page.
Meta description tags can have a significant impact on your SEO efforts. Are you ready to have your Meta Descriptions help your SEO? Contact SEO Vineyard today for a Free Evaluation today!