The Secret Behind a Winning Meta Description

How healthy are your site’s meta descriptions? When was the last time you tweaked yours? These little snippets can often be ignored by Ecommerce experts, but they can be invaluable for your website. Getting them right helps you bring in more traffic – while also ensuring that users are wiser about your brand. But before we get into the ‘how’, let’s take a look at the ‘why’. Why you need a strong meta description: It affects your search rankings For years, digital experts have been of the opinion

Written by TheGenieLab

Sep 28, 2015

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How healthy are your site's meta descriptions? When was the last time you tweaked yours?

These little snippets can often be ignored, but they can be invaluable for your website. Getting them right helps bring in more traffic while ensuring users are wiser about your brand.

Why you need a strong meta description

While Google's algorithms don't account for descriptions when ranking pages, they do consider user behaviour — pages with higher click-through rates are more likely to enjoy stronger rankings. When it comes to improving click-through rates, there's no more effective tool than the humble meta description.

How to make your meta description sing

Stick to the character count: meta descriptions should be between 130-156 characters, including spaces. Anything less struggles to say anything persuasive; anything more gets cut off in search results.

Be snappy: within a tight character count, there's no time for waffle. Keep editing so you're saying as much as possible, as simply as possible.

Spark curiosity: be aware of your target market and what's important to them — learning more, saving money, making money, helping others. Let them know your page is the solution to those desires.

Make them unique: duplicated meta descriptions look spammy and could lead to penalties from search engines.

Include relevant keywords: if your landing pages target specific keywords, include them naturally in your description — they'll also be bolded in search results.

Avoid quotation marks: Google will truncate descriptions that include them.

Include a call to action: a short, persuasive "click here" or "find out more" could compel readers to visit your site.

Adapt them: once published, don't be afraid to edit for best results — keep a constant eye on your metas to ensure they're working for you.

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