What Is Meta Description? How to Make an Engaging One?

When you do a search in search engines, before you decide to click a website link, you might read the description first so you have an overview of the article. That short and brief description is what we call as meta description.

As a website owner, it's really important to create engaging and eye-catching meta descriptions to drive organic traffic and conversions to your site. Take the first step to learn more about meta description and how to create a good one by reading the article below!

What Is Meta Description?

A meta description is a short piece of information that provides an overview of the content of a page. This description usually appears as a snippet below the page link or title on search engine result pages (SERPs). 

To make the meta title appear and be seen by users on search results, you should create a meta description tag. A meta description tag is an HTML element within the code of a page where the meta description is placed that can be easily read by search engines.

Both meta title and meta description are the first things users see in search results. If they read that the meta description contains the information they need, they will click on your link. That's why it's important to create an engaging and eye-catching meta description.

Why Is Meta Description Important?

The main goal of meta description is to get clicks from users who are searching for information on search engines. In other words, it will drive click-throughs from users in search results. Although meta description isn't a ranking factor, but surprisingly it can affect your SEO performance.

Imagine that you're the users who search on Google and get a list of results, you may be confused about where the link you want to click. So, to help you find the right information, you will read the meta description to know what the web page contains. Then, you will be more sure to choose one. 

Meta descriptions influence the user's decision to click on your website. Thus, you need to make sure the description is engaging, concise, relevant to your content, and most importantly, matches the user's intent.

How to Create Engaging Meta Description

After understanding meta description and its importance, you may want to know how to create a meta description that can drive traffic. So, here is a list of tips you can try to make an engaging one:

1. Keep It Under 155 Characters

The first tip on how to create a meta description is to keep it to no more than 155 characters in length. There are no rules that limit your meta description and it's fine if you want to create as long as you want. 

However, on the search results page, user will only see limited snippets of 120 to 156 characters. That's why it's better if you can make the meta description under 155 characters to keep it solid, short, but also informative.

By keeping it short, you can make the meta description easy to read and not separated. To help you count the meta description character, you can use various SEO tools available, e.g. Title and Meta Description Checker by cmlabs.

2. Include Your Main Keyword

Next, you should ensure that your meta description is SEO-friendly, by optimising it for search engine results. Besides keeping the characters under 155, you can also include your main keyword in the meta description. 

While it sounds like a trivial thing, this is very important to both search engines and users to understand what your content is related to. 

In addition, you can create meta descriptions that are short, clear, engaging, eye-catching, and also as informative as possible to attract the readers. 

3. Use an Active Voice 

As you know, a meta description is like an invitation to get people to visit your website. Hence, you need to use sentences that can trigger their motivation to visit your page.

Using an active voice is a great way to get your audience interested and motivated to click. If you write your meta description in a way that speaks directly to your audience, you'll create a sense of invitation, and they'll be more likely to visit your pages.

4. Give Piece Info Users Need

People type in search queries to get the information they need. With that being said, you should include the information that relates to your main keyword and content. Therefore, the most important part of creating an effective meta description is understanding the audience's intent.

For example, if the audience searches for “iPhone Recommendation” you can include the short specification of the iPhone in your meta description. 

5. Make Sure Match with the Content

As well as giving users the information they need, you should also make sure your meta description matches your content. Sometimes, website owners create clickbait titles and descriptions to get traffic but do not provide comprehensive information. 

This is one of the practices you need to avoid to keep your audience’s trust. Remember: Your web description should complete the big picture of your content. You can use tools like a Meta description generator to help you summarise your content and create meta descriptions. 

6. Add Call to Action

Call to action is something that makes your meta description alive. Audiences from search engine results will be motivated to click on the website if they are faced with imperative sentences like CTA. 

Here are some CTA you can use for meta description examples:

• Learn more here!
• Read the full article here!
• Click here!
• Try it for free!
• Shop now!
• See more here!

7. Make it Unique

Last but not least, make your meta description unique. If your meta description is similar to other websites that appear on Google search, people will be less interested in clicking on your page link.

It's always a good idea to highlight the key points or the value of your content, such as offering a solution to a problem or answering a question. Additionally, don't be afraid to spark curiosity in your audience with your meta description, since it can be an effective way to draw them in.

Conclusion

Creating an engaging and informative meta description for each article is a must. By providing overview information about your website, you can help the audience understand what your article is about and make it easier for them to click on your website link. 

Are you struggling to create an engaging meta description and article on your site? Do not worry! You can rely on SEO Writing Services by cmlabs. With professional and experienced teams, we can help you create SEO-friendly meta descriptions and high quality content as per your business needs. Make your website stand out, contact our marketing team now!