The meta description is the text where important SEO features are met. At the same time; will be displayed by search engines in the description of your site.
It describes and summarizes for users the content of your page and shows its benefits in search engines. Here, the meta description will appear immediately under the site name, in the listing of the returned search results (SERP), as well as the meta title. If a meta description is missing, Google will return as a description the first paragraph from the website page.
This is why it’s very important that the meta description should be included professionally and to respect the basic principles of SEO.
A more attractive meta description will help the maximum through the access rate of the site (click-through rate). This means that it will bring you more visitors on the page, attracted by the description made. More traffic = more chances to attract customers and partners, or generate interest for your site.
Clarity and addressability
This description must meet 2 very important parameters:
- to be written in a clear and attractive style for the visitor
- to include keywords that help search engines consider it relevant to the domain/niche to which it is addressed.
The text of the meta description is recommended to be as short as possible (maximum 250-270 characters) and as condensed as possible in the information.
Thus, the meta description will function as a text with organic relevance, pure information, relevant for both: search engines and the user. It will function as a summary of your page.
What does this mean?
As a piece of information, here it must be of maximum relevance: as if you were climbing a hill in maximum flight and once you reached the top, you transmit the most important ideas to save someone.
It only needs to transmit pure information.
How do you do that?
- Research as closely as possible about the field you are writing for
- Understanding the user’s needs
- Summarizing the most important ideas
- Use of concluding sentences
- Use SEO-relevant words
- Conciseness in terms
- Relevance in information
Careful!
Do not use the same meta description for each page of the site. This habit is called ‘cannibalization’ and can make search engines no longer understand which page is most relevant.
Use a unique meta description for each page and relevant keywords for each.
Ideas to be included in the meta description:
- the benefits of your product
- the differentiators that make your product unique
- the degree of coverage of the user’s needs
Users are interested in a few things at first sight of the description: they will click if find immediate value and emotional attraction in what is offered. So you need to provide unique elements in each meta description, taking care to use a rational proportion of keywords.
The meta title is a summary of the full text of the meta description. This is the essence of the description of your page. It is extremely important to be as clear as possible in the return of search engine results (SERPs).
In fact, an interesting and conclusive title will attract the user to enter the site, which is why it must be clear, concise, and descriptive.
The meta title must not exceed 50-60 characters (maximum 10 words) and must contain MANDATORY:
- The main idea of the site (which delivers the most value to your site):
- Name of the company, product, service (from the perspective of branding development)
- Relevance to the user, the point of attraction, plus the value that the site brings. Of course, this will increase your visit rate (CTR).
- Relevant words for the targeted field
- Be relevant and unique to the chosen page
- Descriptive of the content of the page and the purpose for which it was created
- It should start with a relevant name because it will also appear at the top of the site description.
Some external sites, especially social media sites (Facebook, Instagram) will use the title of your page to display it as the first relevant content when the page is distributed.
Things to avoid in both meta description and meta title:
- Avoid clutter of keywords and follow the 20% ratio
- Avoid words that do not differentiate you from other pages
Tips and tricks:
- In the meta title you can use emojis (choose carefully, not all emojis are returned correctly by search engines. Therefore they must be tested before use).
- Google or other engines may delete and replace both the meta description and the meta title if they are not considered relevant to the user.
- Google will shorten both the meta title and the meta description if they are too long
- Each page must have a meta description and a meta title
- Use action verbs and phrases: visit, buy now, read more, find now, rent today, book now, take advantage, receive for free
- Announce the valuable elements: registration in 2 minutes, free, 5000 satisfied users
- Use special characters that can attract: ~ * ~ FREE ~ * ~ CALL IMMEDIATELY !!!
- Avoid the exclusive use of capital letters; it can be annoying for the reader
- Avoid the annoying repetition of the same word.
- Use a title for each page of the site
- Make a unique description of each page
- Write simply, as if you were talking to a friend and you want to give him good advice
Conclusion: both the meta description and the meta title must be written as clearly as possible, with relevant information and words that will help both the visitor to be as attracted as possible to enter the site and the search engines to display them as easily as possible in the niche. chosen relevance.