How To Write Meta Descriptions for Maximum Clicks
Meta descriptions are phrases that appear under titles in search engines such as Bing, Yahoo and Google. They play a crucial part in driving an increased amount of user traffic to websites by encouraging high CTR (click through rate) from the result pages of search engines. Because of this, Meta descriptions must be extremely relevant to the audience you are targeting. This means making your Meta description extremely eye catching in order to receive more clicks. It is crucial that you are aware of the appropriate details to include in your Meta description as well as what format they should be in so that search engines can easily crawl them and display your website’s proper information. It is also important that you know exactly what drives people to choose links on a search engine.
Writing a Great Meta Description
A compelling and informative Meta description can influence the traffic that you receive from search results. Besides the click through rates, an excellent Meta description also demonstrates a brand message that is unique and stands out.
Why You Should Take Meta Descriptions Seriously
There are many reasons why you should take Meta descriptions seriously. This includes increasing the click through rates as well as providing websites with a way to create an organic ad text. On top of this, Meta descriptions can allow for an increased amount of shares on such sites as Facebook and Twitter. It also does the obvious of giving search engine users a clear picture of what the website’s content is about and gives them a reason to click on a particular website.
Tips for Writing Great Meta Description
Below are eight tips to create great Meta Description for your website in order to maximize your website traffic
Make Use of Capital Letters
Using capital letters smartly can be a very good way to draw users’ attention. However, make sure that you do not write your entire Meta description in capital letters as this will look extremely obnoxious and deter users from clicking on your websites’ link.
Include a Call to Action in Your Meta Description
If your website provides any sort of service or sells a product then you should always put a call to action into your Meta description. For example, writing “Sign up now!” into your Meta description can encourage users to click on your website. This way you can turn your Meta description into a cleverly disguised Ad copy.
Include Numbers in Your Description
Using numbers in your Meta description can be a savvy way to subtly draw attention to your website and make it stand out in a search engine. However, be careful not to overuse or misuse this tip.
Don’t Stuff Your Description with Keywords
Many people do not comprehend the purpose of a Meta description, and they only view it as a way to increase their search engine optimization by including a slew of keywords that match their target audience. However, it is important that you understand that Meta description actually has no effect on search engine optimization. Due to this, stuffing your description with keywords can actually work against you and negatively impact your website’s traffic.
Include Keywords
Although keyword stuffing is a big no-no, keywords should not be avoided all together when writing a Meta description. This is due to the fact that when a search engine use looks for anything and the search terms that they use is included in your Meta description then your website will pop up in their search results and their search terms will be bolded.
Stay Within the Character Range
Your Meta description should be less than 156 characters, which includes spaces. If you go over this then your description will get cut and may only show as snippets.
Make it Unique
Make sure that you do not duplicate your Meta descriptions. It is recommended that you create a unique Meta description for every page of your website. In fact, rather than repeating a Meta description for multiple pages of your website, it is better to leave it blank. Know that it is not necessary to have included a Meta description in every page of your website.
Cameron Mackey
Latest posts by Cameron Mackey (see all)
- Why You Need an Outsource Writing Service - September 15, 2015
- How Content Marketing Conferences Can Help Your Business Grow - September 8, 2015
- Why You Should Avoid “Like Baiting” on Social Media - September 1, 2015