If you’ve been active in digital marketing, you’ve probably heard some version of this phrase: “write for humans, not for robots”. It’s a saying that pops up again and again, because it’s something that business owners often forget when they get caught up in writing content and marketing their brand. There’s SO MUCH information available on how to optimize your website for SEO that people forget they’re supposed to be writing for their consumers, not for the Google search bots. If you follow this rule, Google will recognize your efforts and boost your rankings accordingly. So although meta descriptions don’t directly affect your website’s rankings, they’re still extremely important for the user experience. Many people skip writing page descriptions entirely because they know their web design platform will automatically fill something in; but this isn’t generally the best thing for your site, or your brand.

What is a meta description?

It’s not as complicated as it might sound; a meta description is just a summary of a web page. Oftentimes you’ll see them underneath the URL in search results, like in this example for Petco:

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The meta description explains what the web page is about, and it’s a major influencing factor when it comes to whether or not a user is going to click on a link. Think of the meta description as your chance to “advertise” for the content on your website; you’re (hopefully) not taking a mediocre approach to other aspects of digital marketing, so don’t write a sub-par description! (or worse, skip the description all together.)

Why are meta descriptions important?

To put it simply- they influence a consumer’s decision on whether or not to click on your website. Although Google doesn’t use meta descriptions or their keywords as a factor in their ranking algorithm, the descriptions do influence whether a user chooses to click on your site or someone else’s, and click-through-rate does impact SEO. Neil Patel suggests thinking about meta descriptions not as a ranking factor, but as a conversion factor.

Additionally, when you share a post on social media, the platform will either include your description or pull a snippet directly from the content. That’s why you see so many blog posts with random sentences from their content listed in the description. For whatever reason, the first 2 sentences of the post aren’t usually used, so the description can end up being confusing. Would you pick up a book and decide to read it if the summary on the back came from a chapter in the middle of the book?

Follow the advice below to find out how to write your descriptions so that users choose your page over the competition.

How to optimize your meta descriptions:

It’s important to optimize your descriptions because meta descriptions most often appear in the search results pages when the word or phrase a user is searching for shows up in the description.

1. Include keywords (when relevant and appropriate).

That way, when a user types a specific keyword or phrase into Google, your website is more likely to show up in the SERPs. In addition, Google and other search engines bold description keywords that match up to a user’s search keywords which can catch a user’s eye and draw attention to your website in a positive way. For example, I typed “dog groomers” in Google’s search box, and the following listing popped up. You’ll notice the matching keywords (dog groomers) are bolded in the description.

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2. Keep them short and sweet.

There is no set length for meta descriptions, but Google tends to cut them off around 300 characters. Most people try to stick to around 150-200 characters. You want to be descriptive and also provide value so that users want to click on your link, and it’s up to you to decide how many characters are necessary in order for this to happen. Try to get the most important information across in the first 155 characters.

3. Use an active voice, and include a call to action.

Remember, the purpose of the description is to get people to click on your link, so be compelling! Include phrases like “find out more”, “learn more here”, and “try it now!” so that users know exactly what you want them to do. In the image above, you see they included the phrase “Want to see who made the cut?” That’s the call to action.

Compare the following 2 website descriptions, both of which appeared when I typed “how to groom a dog” into Google.

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Both webpage titles are relevant to my search query, so which one should I click? Look at the description! The first article, “How to Groom A Dog in 9 Simple Steps” has a clearly thought-out description. It’s readable, short and to the point, and my keyword phrase is included (and bolded).

Compare this to the second webpage, “Is Dog Grooming Safe?” The description for this page was pulled directly from the content and was clearly not written and optimized for SEO. There’s no call to action and it’s unclear (from the description) what this page is even about.

It makes sense then that the first article was posted on page 1 of Google, whereas the second article was posted on page 4. Think about that when deciding when, and how, to write descriptions for your web pages. What page do you want your site to rank on?

Take note…

It’s important to understand that just because you write a meta description doesn’t mean Google will recognize it. There’s no way to predict when this will happen, but if Google feels that your description doesn’t accurately match the content on the web page, they’ll overrule it and post a snippet from the page instead. You can avoid this by just writing thoughtful, optimized descriptions following the tips listed above. Need some more guidance? Check out this article by No Risk SEO!

What are your tips for writing engaging meta descriptions? Comment in the section below!