Hopefully you see the wisdom in crafting your own meta descriptions for each page of your website (or hiring someone like Filament to write them for you). The default to writing your own meta descriptions – the little paragraph that explains the page when you do a Google search – is to let the search engine “write” it. Typically the search engine will pull some content from that page and use it, whether it’s good or bad. We’ve said it before so there’s no need to go into great detail, just know that it is very important to have control over this content. It’s the first impression for organic searchers.
Before you begin writing your meta descriptions, do a search for your top keywords or your competition. Review their meta descriptions. Are they compelling? Do these snippets use vital keywords? Do they explain what the website is, what it does, how it answers a need? These are all things you want your meta description to do. Once you get a feel for how the competition does it, you should be able to come up with some ways you can improve upon their meta description and be even MORE compelling to potential customers.
In addition to improving upon what your competition is doing, the following guidelines will help you write a great meta description.
- Be a salesperson. Use that call-to-action language. In fact, start with a verb. For example: Shop for women’s jeans here. Find your plumbing solution with us. Learn how to paint furniture. Whether it’s overt or subliminal, people respond to these action words.
- Who are you/What do you do? While the page’s title tag (don’t forget how important your title tags are) will appear at the top of the snippet and give your company name and hopefully explain what you do, the meta description needs to reinforce this. Don’t leave people hanging, tell them what to expect on that page. Be distinct, straight forward and specific. People want to skim and find what they want almost instantly. Each page needs a meta description and that description is specific to that page.
- Be honest. Don’t exaggerate or lie or pack your description with keywords. People are more savvy than they were and getting more so every day. Searchers can sniff out a lie and you lose trust and customers instantly. Just tell people what your company does.
- Use keywords. While we said not to keyword stuff above, you still want to be cognizant of the important keywords to your industry and to that page of your website and use them. Just make sure you’re being conversational and informative in your description. Don’t rely on a list of words to convey your point.
- Think of your audience. Imagine your ideal visitor and then speak directly to them. Are you a local business? If so, make sure you mention your location in your meta description. Do you offer something your competition doesn’t? If so, include a mention of that. Is your staff well educated with many years of experience? Perhaps that would be a selling point to your ideal customer. Sell yourself to this person and treat them with respect and you’ll do well.
- 155 characters. Here’s the real kicker: you have a limited space allotted to your meta descriptions. It’s actually measured in pixels, but you can plan on roughly 150-160 characters. That’s not a lot of space in which to sell your company, so word choice and brevity are vital.
These tips and a bit of research on your part should give you the tools you need to craft great meta descriptions. While meta descriptions are not a huge part of SEO (search engine optimization) they may be the one factor that sways a customer to visit your website instead of your competition’s.
