What Is Meta Description? 7 Tips to Create Powerful One

Do you know that 74,98% of top-ranking pages had good meta descriptions? Just by looking at this data, you must know that meta description is one of the important factors to consider if you want to achieve a higher ranking on search engines. A meta description is a piece of information that contains a short description or overview of the content on your web pages.

This web page element can help your audience understand what your web pages are all about and trigger them to click and visit your page. Want to learn more about content description and how to create a powerful one? Read the articles below until the very last word!

What Is Meta Description?

A meta description is a short piece of information that is usually seen under the meta title link on a search result. The main reason why this description exists is to act as bait to get more visitors from the search engine results that will click on your page link. 

To make meta description appear on search engines, you should write meta description tags in HTML containing snippets that summarise web page content. In HTML code, a meta description tag will be similar to this example:

Why Meta Description is Important for SEO?

When people are searching and writing search queries, the search engine will display the search result listing by taking the phrases contained in every website’s content description into consideration. 

For example, if you search for “Restaurants in Chinatown Sydney,” the search engine will bolt the keyword you search on the meta description example result like this:

Even though the meta description isn't a direct ranking factor, there are indirect benefits you can get. As you already know, content description can increase CTR and Google might use this user-controlled metric as a consideration for page rank position. 

In addition, the SEO meta description can help your audience to better understand your page content and drive them to visit your website. That’s why a well-written content description can help you improve your SEO performance and website ranking.

Does Google Rewrite Meta Description?

When people ask if Google rewrites descriptions for websites, the answer is yes, sometimes Google does. According to data, Google rewrites meta description for 62.78% of websites, which means the majority of search results. 

So, why exactly does Google rewrite the content description of websites? The answer is usually because the description does not match the user's intent.

Google will rewrite the website's meta description to match specific queries, especially if it finds that another part of the website's title, heading, or content contains information that is more relevant to the query.

The other scenario why this happens is because Google doesn't like poorly written and too long meta descriptions. The writer sometimes doesn't pay attention when writing the meta description, so it can be too short, too long, or doesn't describe anything about the content.

Google rewrites because it wants to optimize the meta description to increase the likelihood of a top ranking and being found by a wider audience.  

Tips to Create Powerful Meta Description

Now that you understand meta description and its importance next, let's discuss how to make it work and become powerful enough to attract an audience. Here are some tips on how to create a meta description:

1. Consider Customer Intent

The first thing to consider when writing your content description is user intent. A description will prioritise the user experience and understand exactly what they need.

You can start by asking yourself a few questions, such as "What is this page about?", "Why is my page the best choice for users?", "What exactly do users need when writing search queries?", and "What will users get from my page?".

By answering these questions, you can identify what exactly your audience needs to know or solve, and your site can be the best solution for them. Based on the content that aligns with customer intent, you can create a clearer and more relevant description.

2. Keep It Around 155

Google usually limits the meta description on the search engine display based on pixels. The limit on the desktop is 920 pixels, which is about 158 characters for website desktop display, and for mobile desktop, it's only 120 characters.

Although there are no rules to creating an ideal description, Google will only show snippets of the description. So it's better to keep your description around 155 characters so that it is not truncated or rewritten by Google.

To keep your description at the recommended pixels and character lengths, you can use SEO tools like title and meta description checker by cmlabs. These tools can show character, pixel, and word count of your title and description, you can then adjust it if your description is too short or too long.

3. Make It Actionable

Imagine that your meta description and title are the first faces audiences see on your page. So, it's important to create a description that is concise, informative, and also actionable to attract and grab audience's attention.

Tell the audience what they should expect from your page. Also, instead of using an adjective and some fancy words that look so promotional, you can use actionable and motivational text. With this approach, users will feel more motivated to click and engage with your content.

4. Add Target Keyword

The next important part of creating the meta description is to include your main target keyword. Using keywords in your description is a smart way to improve the chances of Google matching it to relevant queries and also helps users notice the relevance of your page to their needs.

When search queries match the phrase in your description, Google will be more likely to show your page in search results because it considers your page as useful and relevant. Pro tips: avoid stuffing keywords in the description, consider using one or two of the most powerful keywords.

5. Include Call to Action

Call-to-action (CTA) is one of the important things that should be included in your meta description. Including call-to-action will help the audience understand what you offer and what to expect after they click. A strong CTA will lead casual searchers to become valuable visitors, trigger their motivation to click and make an essential part of building effective descriptions.

Some call-to-actions that are commonly used on meta descriptions are:

• Read more!
• Learn more here!
• Discover here!
• Browse our product!
• Shop now!

6. Avoid Only Using Meta Description Generator

Meta description generator is a tool that can help you create descriptions based on machine learning algorithms. Whether the use is not prohibited, but it's better if you can write the description originally, so you can include your brand value and identity.

7. Make Sure Match with Content

Last but not least, it's very important to make sure your content is not clickbait or irrelevant to the content. You should create valuable descriptions that match with overall content on your pages to increase the reader’s experience.

An engaging meta description is very useful for getting organic traffic from search engine result pages. People who search will understand more about your page content and will be more convinced to visit your website if you have a good description. That's why description is one of the SEO aspects that you need to pay attention to.

However, for some people, making a compelling website description isn't an easy job since it requires time, effort, creativity, and knowledge of SEO writing. But, you don’t need to worry if you're one of them. Now, you can work with experts like SEO Writing Services by cmlabs. 

In cmlabs, our experienced and professional team will help you create high-quality content including engaging SEO-friendly meta description. Don't wait any longer, contact our marketing team now and get more amazing amount of clicks!