Meta description

What is meta description?

First and foremost: Meta description does not have a direct link to SEO.

A meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page. It simply explains what the reader can expect to find on the website. Search engines like Google often display the meta description in search results, which can affect clickthrough rates.

In addition to ranking in the search engines, it is at least as much about getting your content presented effectively. It is, therefore, critical to have a good meta description that tells what you find on the website.

Meta descriptions can have different lengths. Since Google and other search engines cut around 160 characters, we recommend keeping the meta description between 100 and 160 characters. It should be long enough to describe what the reader will be able to find on the page, and it should effectively show what the page is about. This increases the chances of the browser clicking into your website.

Optimal format

Meta descriptions are extremely important for search results and for generating clicks. In addition to these short sections being the site's ability to “advertise” content to searchers, it also allows applicants to determine whether the content is relevant and contains the information they are searching for.

The meta description of a page should use the keywords that the page is targeting, and it should also create a compelling description that allows the applicant to click on the link to the page. The content should be directly relevant to the page it describes, and preferably unique from the descriptions for other pages. This gives you much more chance of the searcher clicking on your page.

SEO practiced well

The meta description is relevant for promoting the site, as it directs readers to a website. This also makes it an important part of search marketing. It is important to create a readable and compelling description of your web page, by using important keywords for the content of the page. It can significantly improve your site's CTR.

If you want to maximize the clickthrough rates on search engine results pages, it's important to note that Google and other search engines have bold / bold keywords in the description when they match searches. The bold text attracts the attention of the viewer, so you should match your descriptions to the keywords as closely as possible.

As with meta titles, the meta descriptions on each page must be unique. This allows search engines to separate them from other pages that have similar content and / or keywords. One way to avoid duplicate meta descriptions is to implement a dynamic and programmatic way to create unique meta descriptions for automated pages.

Do not include double quotes. For every character used, your text is correspondingly cut by google and other search engines. You have a maximum of 160 characters that appear in the meta description, and the smartest thing to do is to cut out all non-alphanumeric aspects. If it is important to include quotes in the text, you can use the HTML device instead. That way, you avoid some abbreviations and can include as much of the text in the description as possible.

Sometimes you don't need a meta description

Although, logically, it is better to write a good meta description rather than letting the search engines arrange it their way. You can use this general rule of thumb to determine if you should write your own meta description: If your site targets between one and three frequently searched terms or descriptions, write your own meta text that directly addresses the user's search. Then there is a higher chance that your page will be caught in, for example, Google.

A reservation to exclude the meta description

It's important to remember that social media, such as Facebook, often uses a page's meta description tag as a description when the page is shared on their sites. Without the meta description code, social sharing sites will use the first text they can find. The first part of your text is therefore very important for describing the content of the page when it is shared.

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Additional reading

• How can we do it so cost-effectively?
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