The Complete Guide to Meta Descriptions

Read Time: 3:09 mins

You have a website but don’t appear in the search engine? One of the reasons this happens is your website doesn’t have proper meta descriptions.

Everyone knows that the first impression you make on a person is very important. Especially, when meeting potential clients, you are clear on your services and who you are. Wouldn’t you want to do the same with your website? Unfortunately, most website have not optimized their meta descriptions. This is equivalent to a first impression with your client but, on the web.

Meta descriptions influence your clicks, and have an impact on how you rank in search engines. With this in mind, people have gotten accustom to finding results fast on search engines. Without meta descriptions when your page appears, a user won’t know if your content is what they are looking for. Due to this, they will scroll past you to not waste time. This stresses the importance of labelling the content before the user clicks on it.

Fear no more, I’m here to tell you how to fix this issue for websites, and give you better visibility on search engines.

In this guide you’ll learn everything you need to know about meta descriptions, and how to write them. Ultimately, making your business stand out on the web and helping you make that great first impression.

What is a Meta Description?

Meta descriptions are a brief summary of a web page in your search. This summary helps users at a glance, select which website has the information they need. For example, if I want to learn how to loose weight, ill then look at the content presented to me. The title has to match what I want, and the meta description needs to show me the steps I need to take to get there.

Why is A Meta Description Important?

A meta description and the title are the first look a potential client gets before going to your website. Make your first impression one to attract to your page, and giving an idea of what the content is. If your meta description makes no sense it will most likely lead to your page not getting clicked.

Good vs. Bad Meta Descriptions

Good Meta Descriptions

This is an example of a great description because because it describes a meta description. It does it in a concise manner that is easy to read with separators between the words.

Bad Meta Descriptions

How to Write Meta Descriptions For Your Website

Step 1: What is the main point of your content

- what is the page about?
- summarize what’s the most important part of the page.
- For example, if my page is about my services as a flooring installer. I would in my meta description write: “GTA’s Favourite Flooring Team. Professionally Install hardwood, vinyl, staining, and more.”

Step 2: Make it attractive the the reader.

- write the description in a manor that attracts your potential client to click on your website.
- display only what is true, don’t make up content as click bait, as you will not get leads.
- Make it visually appealing to the eye by creating dashes or using an uppercase letter for each word.

Step 3: Short and sweet

- keep the length of a meta descriptions often around 160 characters in length.
- any longer will get cut off in the search engine and is not read

Step 4: Make sure the title and the meta description match.

- The title and the meta description should be talking about the same topic.

Meta Assignment

Lets learn more, search anything on google and see for yourself! Top pages have a proper meta description, it will be very difficult to find a bad tag anywhere in the first few pages. Meanwhile if you go to the last pages 25+ you will find more websites with pages that do not have a proper meta tags. Indicating that this one important factor has a role when it comes to ranking.

Final Thoughts

Now that you’ve learnt the basis of a meta description and its importance, analyze your own. If they don’t match what we’ve disccussed you know what to do to change them.

The first step to any getting any potential clients is making the right impression.

Don’t have time to do this? Congraphix Design Solutions can ensure your meta tags are proper and can take the hard work away.