SEO is a hard nut to crack.
Sometimes you feel that you’ve cracked the code. And sometimes, you have no clue what’s wrong with it...
Even expert marketers sometimes break a sweat when it comes to SEO.
The search engine pioneer Google changes its algorithm around 600 times each year. Safe to say that SEO is never stagnant. Google constantly changes it.
It means optimizing SEO is not a one-time story. It requires constant efforts to rank higher on search engine rankings!
Hey… but there are still some areas that Google hasn’t changed. You can still work on them to get better traffic and conversions.
One of those areas we’re talking about in this post is meta descriptions.
From the beginning, meta descriptions have been playing an important role on result pages. And we’re confident it will not change. So let’s talk about it a bit...
What Are Meta Descriptions?
A meta description is an HTML tag. It contains a summary of your webpage’s content. If you do not know what meta descriptions look like, here’s what you can do...
Head over to Google and search for something. Once the results are visible or SERPs, look at the lines that show under each link. Those lines or summaries are meta descriptions.
The meta description provides a preview of the web page to the users. They can get an idea about what they’ll find on the webpage.
What’ll Google show if there is no meta description???
Well, even if you don’t write the meta description yourself, they’ll still appear in the SERPs. Many content-sharing systems create webpage meta descriptions on their own.
But, do you want that?
We don’t think so…
Meta description increases click-through rate. If a user gets an idea of what’s available on your webpage, he’ll click to visit your page.
Hence, you would want to do it by yourself, right?
But… wait a minute!
Does it affect SEO ranking?
Is Meta Description Important For Ranking?
To answer it in simple terms: No.
Meta descriptions are not important for SEO or ranking.
According to Google, the meta descriptions and meta keywords no longer affect rankings.
Wondering why they’re no longer a ranking factor?
Here’s why...
Decades ago, Google ranked web pages based on their content. It gave an excellent opportunity for people to stuff their meta tags with keywords.
Sometimes, many of them would be irrelevant and misleading to the user. The keywords would be shown in the description. But, upon clicking that link, they won’t appear anywhere on the webpage.
Because of the Meta keyword abuse, Google disregarded it as a ranking factor.
But that doesn’t mean meta descriptions are useless. Google still uses the description meta tag to show snippets on the SERPs.
Apart from that, Meta description benefits a website in 2 ways:
- Meta descriptions have the power to convince users to hit your result in the SERPs.
- Google measures the click-through rate of websites to rank them. Hence, if people click on your link because of the meta description, your SEO will boost.
If you want users to click on your link, write an appealing meta description. It’ll also help you boost rankings on result pages.
So, today we’re here to share tips for writing perfect SEO meta descriptions. Stick with us to master the art of writing the best meta description ASAP!
We bet if you follow these guidelines, you’ll see improvements in your CTRs and traffic.
Ready to start?
Let’s begin...!
6 Tips For Writing Better Meta Descriptions For Ecommerce Traffic And Conversion Strategy
1. Provide a Value Proposition To the Audience
Google offers 300 characters to write a meta description for your web pages. Yet, many marketers limit their meta descriptions to 150 or 160 characters.
Yes, readers, in 150 words, summarize what users can find on your webpage. It means there aren’t many characters for storytelling.
In 150 characters, convince your prospect to click your link in the result list. So, how are you going to do that?
By writing that you are the best in the market will not help much. So, what you have to do is write a Meta description that your audience wants to read.
Confused? Let us help you…
People have no interest in how famous you are. All they’re interested in is knowing “what's in for me?”
Hence, make sure that your description answers the following questions:
- What does this page offer?
- Why should the user click on this link?
- Will they find what they’re looking for?
If the description answers all the questions, good job!
Let’s move on to discuss how NOT to write boring meta descriptions...
2. Be Unique, Interesting, And Welcoming
Would you click on a description that makes you yawn? Or the ones that are generic and boring?
You won’t, right?
The users will do the same! They won’t prefer to visit a page that has a so-so meta description. To entice users to visit your link, make sure your descriptions are anything but boring.
Hence, remember the rule: write for humans first… and make it interesting to increase CTRs.
Now, how can you make your meta descriptions unique and interesting?
Start with using an active and action-oriented voice. Look at the following example:
- Practice your French writing skills NOW!
- Our French course improves French writing skills.
Can you feel the difference between both examples? The users will select the first one because it encourages them to take action whereas the second one sounds kind of robotic and dull.
Write descriptions that highlight user benefits and encourage them to click. Don’t be pushy to make sales or brag about your brand. These are big turnoffs for users. Thus, use action-oriented words to sound interesting.
But, while trying to sound interesting… make sure that you don’t lie to your users.
3. Be Honest
Suppose you write a killer Meta description. The user reads it and visits your page. He scans the page for the information that you mentioned in the description. But, that content isn’t available.
What do you think will happen next?
The user will bounce from the page. And you know that a high bounce rate is damaging for SEO.
So, mention nothing in your description that isn’t available on your webpage. Be honest about what the user will find on your page. If you’ll bluff users by promising something you don’t have, your SEO will suffer.
Summarize the content that is available on your page using the right keywords.
Let’s talk more about it…
4. Naturally Use The Keywords In Meta Descriptions
SEO and keywords are inseparable. That’s why marketers spend a lot of time and effort researching appropriate keywords. Adding these keywords to blog posts, landing pages, and product pages will help SEO.
So, give us one good reason for not including them in the Meta description?
Keywords in meta description inform Google about the content of your page. Hence, not adding keywords in meta descriptions can be a terrible mistake.
But this doesn’t mean you have to bombard keywords in your description, no.
What you have to do is fit the keywords in the best possible way in the description. It’ll boost your CTRs.
How?
Google bolds the words in the meta description that match the user’s query. If a meta description has many words that match the user’s query, the user will be more likely to click that result!
5. Don’t Duplicate Meta Descriptions
It is natural to get into the habit of using the same meta description for many web pages especially when a website has a few pages or posts with similar content.
For acing the game of meta descriptions, stay away from duplicating the descriptions. Duplicated descriptions do not work well for getting increased CTRs.
Do you know why?
Let us tell you why duplicating descriptions can harm your SEO. If several web pages have the same meta description, here’s what will happen...
When a user enters a query; your web pages that have similar meta descriptions will show on the result pages. So, instead of one web page appearing on the result page, there’ll be many of them.
Now, you might think it’s cool to have many pages ranking on SERPs, right?
Wrong!
If several results of the same website appear, it makes them look irrelevant. The users dislike clicking on a website that appears several times.
Your web pages will compete against each other instead of competing with other websites on SERPs.
6. Incorporate A CTA Or An Offer
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that meta descriptions work as ad copy on SERPs. There will be many other meta descriptions that’ll try to attract the user to their websites. What can you do to stand out from them?
You can include interesting offers and call-to-actions (CTAs) to boost CTRs.
For instance, a software seller can offer a free trial to the users. eCommerce stores can offer express delivery, money-back guarantees, easy payment methods, etc.
Use common CTA words in the meta description to drive action from users such as; Learn more, check out, download now, book now, etc.
Over To You
Meta descriptions don’t contribute to a website’s ranking, yet they help in increasing click rates.
Thus, nail perfect SEO meta descriptions to increase eCommerce traffic and conversions.
Use the above tips to write killer meta descriptions for your web pages. You may also check out our SEO Guide for Beginners to learn more about Search Engine Optimization for your online store.
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