Meta descriptions are a great way to describe your page to search engines and users alike. A meta description is a small snippet of text that appears below your page’s title in the search results. It is the first thing a user will see when they click on a search result, so it is important to make it compelling and useful.
In this post, I’m going to show you how to write a meta description for your page that will help your page rank higher in search results and get more traffic to your page. I will also show you a few tricks that you can use to make your meta description more appealing to users, as well as how to use meta descriptions to your advantage when you’re promoting your page on social media and other online channels. I have also included some tips to help you write a compelling meta description that will get users to click on your page when they see it in a search results page. You can use these tips to write meta descriptions for any page on your site, whether it is a blog post, a landing page, a product page, or anything else!
## What Is a Meta Description?
A meta description, also known as a meta tag, is a short description of the page that appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). The meta description isn’t visible to users when they are on a page, but it is used by search engines to determine how relevant a page is to a specific search query. Search engines use the meta description of a page to determine whether the page is relevant to the search query, and if it is relevant, they will rank the page higher in the SERPs. If a page has a compelling description, it will be more likely to be clicked on by a user, which will lead to more traffic and higher conversion rates. This is why it is so important to write an effective meta description.
For example, if a user searches for “best dog food” in Google, the search engine will display a list of search results for pages that contain the word “dog” and “food.” The first result in that list will be the page with the most relevant content to the query. In this case, it would be the “Best Dog Food” page. Next to the title of that page, there will be a small box that says “description” or “meta description” (depending on the page). This box is where you can write a short, compelling description of your page, and it will appear next to the page title in a SERP.
If you want to learn more about meta descriptions and how they work, check out this post on how meta descriptions work.
## How to Write a Compelling Meta Description
There are a few things you need to keep in mind when writing a compelling, SEO-optimized meta description:
The meta description should be short and to the point. It should be no longer than 160 characters, but you should try to keep it under 100 characters. The shorter your description, the more likely it is to get clicked on.
You should include a few keywords in your description. This will help search engines understand what your page is about, and will make it easier for users to find your page if they are searching for a specific topic.
Make sure you include a clear call to action (CTA). A CTA is a word or phrase that prompts a user to take a specific action. For example, a CTA could be “buy now,” “learn more, “sign up for a free trial”, or any other action you want your users to take.
Include your brand name in the description. If you are selling a product, include the brand name of the product. If your site is about a service, include your company name or the name of your service.
Try to avoid using too many adjectives or adverbs. These can make your description sound too generic, and search engines will have a harder time understanding what your content is about.
Avoid using a lot of exclamation points. Exclamation points are great for emphasizing a point, but they can also be distracting and make the description sound like a sales pitch. Instead, try to use them sparingly.
When you are writing the description, make sure it is easy to read. If it is difficult to read, users will not be interested in reading it, and they will not click on it to read it. Make sure the font is large enough for the description to be easily read, and make sure the text is not too close to the edge of the box.
Keep the description short and sweet. If the description is longer than 100 characters, it is probably too long. You should aim to keep the description under 50 characters, and ideally, under 40 characters.
Use the right length for the type of page you are promoting. A blog post should have a longer description than a product landing page. A product page should be longer than a page promoting a service or a product.
It is also a good idea to test different variations of your description to see which one gets the most clicks. You may find that one variation works better than another, so you may want to use that one in the future.
I’ve included a few examples of meta descriptions below. Keep in mind that these are just examples, and that you should write your own description based on the content on your own page.
## Product Page
This is a great example of a product description. Notice how the description includes a clear CTA (“Buy now!”), a brand name, and the product’s name. The description also includes a few adjectives and adverbs, which makes it sound more natural and less like a marketing pitch.
This product description is also very short, which means it will get more clicks than a longer, more generic description. However, if you were promoting this page on a social media channel, you would want to make sure that the description was at least 100 characters long, so that it would show up in users’ feeds when they click on the link to your page.