The meta description of a website plays an important role in attracting the right kind of visitor from the search engine results pages or SERPs. Many digital marketers don’t pay enough attention to this important part when implementing their marketing plan. In fact, most of them think that the meta description doesn’t matter anymore. If you don’t place enough attention on getting your meta description right, you are missing the opportunity to attract highly targeted leads and customers to your business.
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The meta description is the snippet of information that you find below the link of a search result. It plays an important part in search results. The purpose of this description is to describe the content of your site to the visitor. The description should persuade the visitor to click through to your website. The words that match the search term of the visitor are usually bolded.
The latest statistics reveal that there is only a small percentage of visitors who scroll down to the bottom of the page in order to click a website there. The percentage of clicks is usually reduced as you go down the page. In fact, the more relevant sites are at the top of the page. In fact, if your website is ranked down the order on the results pages, you should be having an eye-catching meta description in order to attract visitors to your site.
Even if you are on the top of the results pages, the same logic will apply. In fact, you should have a meta description that is clear and convincing to attract the visitor. This will prevent the searcher from scrolling down the page looking for relevant results. In summary, the better your description, the more likely you are going to get a good click-through rate from the search engines. Here are some tips to consider when writing a clear and concise meta description that stands out to the searcher.
1) Action-Oriented Language
In fact, the meta description should be action-oriented at all times. It should tell the reader what he or she could do by clicking on the link. Make sure that you use action-oriented verbs like discover, learn, or grab when writing the meta description. Also, follow up the verb with specifics of what the visitor would get by clicking on your website.
2) Offer A Benefit or Solution
The searcher should now what he or she can expect by clicking on the link. The last thing the visitor wants is to click the back button because he or she didn’t get what he/she wanted. This can affect your website bounce rate. Hence, you need to avoid such a situation. You should have a short sentence telling the visitor why he or she should be reading your post. This is your best opportunity to sell the visitor on what you have to offer.
3) Keep The Description Under 155 Characters
Even though your meta description should be fewer than 155 characters, Google measures it by pixels. In fact, Google will cut off the description after a specific width. The 155 -character rule is a benchmark to abide by. There is a handy tool from SEOmofo to double check the length of your meta description and title tags.
4) Don’t Deceive The Searchers
Don’t deceive the searcher with a meta description that is not relevant to the content that you offer. The visitor will hit the back button and go back to the SERPs if you do that. This is not good for your rankings since it increases the bounce rate of your site. Websites with a higher bounce rate are usually ranked down the order. Also, some descriptions are spammed with keyword-stuffed content – which is not good. The search engines will penalize sites that have descriptions stuffed with keywords. That is why you need to avoid such occurrences.
5) Make The Description Relevant And Specific
The average searcher is smart enough to know a predictable meta description when they see it in the SERPs. You shouldn’t use fluff words but descriptive words for the meta description. Make sure that you do the best to connect with the visitors by letting them know what they are going to get by clicking through to your website.
What You Should Avoid Doing With Meta Descriptions
If you fail to add a meta description for a website that you want to rank on the SERPs, Google will usually display a snippet of text from the first paragraph of your content. If there is a keyword in this text, it will be bolded. But this is not good for your website. In fact, why should you miss out on the opportunity to entice your visitor with a relevant meta description?
The right meta description offers you the chance of winning over your prospective customers. It is similar to a short sales pitch for your site. Many webmasters leave out on the best opportunity to improve their click-through rates. That is why you need to add an engaging meta description to your website and persuade the customer to choose you over your competition.
Author Bio: Lori H. Morris is a digital marketing specialist and content writer, specializing in brand awareness and social media for startups and large enterprises at a Toronto website design company. Lori helps organizations achieve their business goals through social media planning and execution.
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