Your meta description is exactly like a shops display!
Ranking in position 7 on page one isn’t exactly a bad thing, you’ve already got some attention, but there’s more you can do to grab more attention.
Welcome to the meta description!
Think of the meta description as your movie trailer. You’re giving the user a sneak peak at what you’re offering, so you’ve got to make it stand out compared to your competitors.
And length is a big part of this!
Why? Let’s discuss!
What is a meta description?
Simply put, it’s an extended description of the web page.
When users are searching google, they are presented with three things for each website
The URL
A Meta Title
A Meta Description
The Meta Title helps optimise for SEO. Here you want to add your main keyword.
The Meta Description directly has no impact on SEO but indirectly it could be your secret weapon to climbing up the search engines!
Why?
Because it will influence people to either click or to keep on scrolling to the next result!
How long should the meta description be?
You’re given around 160 characters!
We recommend using around 145 characters. Sometimes search engines can cut off the final few letters, so it’s best to chose one which you know will always be shown to the user
Does the meta description always get shown?
No, not always! We all know Google loves relevance and if you’re meta descriptions are poorly filled out, blank, too short , they may decide to show another meta description which they judge as more relevant
How do you optimise them?
If you’re on a content management system like WordPress it’s really easy to change them.
If you’ve got a bespoke site it’s likely you’ve got a plug-in to do most of the heavy lifting with SEO.
If you can’t find where to edit them, add either Rank Math or Yoast, there will be a simple set up then you’re good to go!
Just head over to the page, click edit and it should all be there for you.
If you’ve got a custom built html website you can go in an edit the individual page, find where it says meta description and replace with your new one.
5 ways you can get better MD’s
Put the user first and focus on search intent
Think about the benefit the user is going to get from going to your page over the other results.
Don’t over optimise
Be clear and concise
Add a call to action
Analyse your CTRs
Analysing CTRs made simple
The only way to see what’s working and what’s not working is to check the data.
Use google search console to check the click through rates
