! Client Login TelTel: : 816-472-4455

" #

Home // emsights // The Forgotten Importance of Meta Descriptions: 6 Steps to Make Better Descriptions

emsights: Online Marketing InsightsLearn the latest online marketing tips, tricks and strategies for gettingthe most out of online marketing only from the emfluence team.

The Forgotten Importance of Meta Descriptions: 6Steps to Make Better Descriptions

5 5

Friday, March 6, 2015Written by Brittany ParkerSearch Analyst

It’s no secret that meta descriptions don’t carry official weight when it comes to search enginealgorithms, but that doesn’t mean you should stop caring about them.

When a user searches for something, the first impression he or she will get of your site, brand,product, offering, etc., is what is presented on the SERP. This includes the title, description, URLand more, if you have rich snippets. You are competing for the user’s attention on this ever-changing search space. How are you going to win the user’s eyes and, ultimately, clicks to yoursite if you’ve got a crappy description for a possible landing page?

Therein lies the importance of meta descriptions.

This theory, like others, suggests that your site’s CTR has impact on your ranking. Google’sWebmaster Tools gives you search queries, impressions, clicks, CTR CTR and average position. Thisshows that, as an SEO, this is something Google wants you to look at (via theirtheir tool). They arepresenting information they deem important to a webmaster’s site; therefore, you should makeit important.

With that, this 2010 eye tracking study showed that the most focused on “Area of Interest”(AOI)for users on SERPs is the description (or snippet, as they call it).

(Source: http://dynamical.biz/blog/web-analytics/serps-user-behaviour-eye-tracking-study-32.html)

As you can see, the snippet (description) gets the most action from the user’s eyes … anotherreason to put importance on it. What does this mean? If you have compelling meta descriptions,then users are probably more likely to click on your link.

How do you write a compelling meta description, you ask?Good question. Here’s how:

Six Steps to a Better Meta Description

(Because they DO matter)

1. Stick to the recommended length of 160-character maximum. Stick to the recommended length of 160-character maximum. If you go over this, chances are, you are getting words cut off, and it could be in places thatmay not make sense to the user. So, don’t go over 160 characters!

2. Use up as much space as you can.Use up as much space as you can.Since you have 160 characters to use … use them! Maximize the space you are given. Thiscan also help ensure that your meta description is relevant to search engines and, hopefully,make it less likely that they just pull some site content and plug it in.

3. Keywords are okay to use. Don’t worry, you aren’t ‘stuffing.’Keywords are okay to use. Don’t worry, you aren’t ‘stuffing.’Yes, keyword stuffing is bad … this isn’t a new thing. But that doesn’t mean you should shyaway from using them all together. Search engines bold these words in the SERPs for a

reason: so users can get their attention brought to them. Use your keyword, word, as in, the oneand only one you are going for on a page, and use it naturallynaturally in a sentence. Preferablycloser to the beginning so there is even less risk of it getting cut off and appears farther tothe left (see why below). With this, make sure the title has the keyword, too, along with yourbrand name and/or section of site it’s on.

Bonus tipBonus tip: Keywords in title tags should be as far left as possible to eliminate risks of gettingcut off and, because according to this study, that’s where the user’s eyes are anyway.

(Source: https://www.distilled.net/resources/optimize-your-serp-snippet-ctr/)

4. Use action words/verbs.Use action words/verbs.Show how a user will interact with your site. Start your description with something thatmakes the user want to do something. Using verbs, action words and call-to-actions like,“discover,” “read about,” “learn how to,” or “look through,” etc., can make your site contentactionable even before the user lands on your site. The user can see that they will beinteracting with your site rather than getting handed a site with nothing to do on it.

5. Include cliffhangers.Include cliffhangers.You want to entice the user to click on your link within the SERP but not give them allall thedetails right there. Otherwise, they might not see the point in clicking on your site at all ifthey’re getting all the information they need without clicking.

6. Write descriptions for your inner user.Write descriptions for your inner user.That’s right. You are a Webmaster, SEO, etc., AND a user. After you’ve written yourdescription, read it back to yourself as though you were the user. Would you want to readthat? Would you feel like you needed to click? Does it make sense for the keywords you aregoing after? If not, then you probably need some more adjusting.

< Newer Post Older Post >

Bonus tip: Bonus tip: If you’re also running search ads, try comparing your best performing ads onthe same keywords and see if you can use any of that ad copy in your meta description.

Voila! You’ve created a compelling meta description!Voila! You’ve created a compelling meta description!

But how do you measure this?

One key metric to look at is if your organic traffic is up, especially for pages that are alreadyranking. This isn’t to say that an increase in organic traffic is due only to your new amazing metadescriptions, but it is definitely a playing factor and something you should look at.

Another way is with SERP Turkey’s split-test tool, with which you can test different snippets andSERPs and see which has more click-throughs. The creator wrote an introduction to this tooland a breakdown of how it works. Essentially, you can create different SERPs, send out yourunique testing link for custom SERPs (with your new descriptions implemented) and retrieve aCTR analysis.

So, you’ve got the reasons why you should care about those little forgotten meta descriptions,how to perfect them and how to measure them. Now, go create compelling descriptions foramazing click-throughs!

Categories: More from Brittany Parker:

Add new comment

Your nameYour name

content marketing >

search engine optimization >

site optimization >

Comment Comment **

By submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.

Save