When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), focus keywords often get all the attention, but they aren’t the only element you need to keep an eye out for.
Meta descriptions are also critical to achieving a good click-through rate from search engines, and you’ll need to pay attention to them if you want to increase your organic traffic.
In this article, we’ll go in-depth about the role of meta descriptions in SEO, discuss their benefits, then show how to optimize your own in three different ways.
Let’s get our SEO hats on!
An Introduction to Meta Descriptions (And Their Benefits)
Simply put, meta descriptions are the brief descriptions that appear below the title of your pages on search engines.
However, they can also appear wherever you share your content (social media, for example), so it’s important to make sure it gives readers an idea as to what to expect.
A great meta description is all about providing as much information about your piece as possible within a narrow format (usually 135 to 160 characters).
To do so, it should fulfill the following criteria:
It should be straightforward and not come across as too ‘salesy’.
Your post’s focus keyword should be included.
It shouldn’t be a duplicate of any of your past meta descriptions.
You should include a Call-to-Action (CTA) if possible, since it can help boost your click-through rate.
Point number two can be particularly important since Google highlights the keywords it finds within your meta description.
If we were to do a search right now using Elegant Themes as our keywords, here’s how one of the results would look:
Source: 3 Ways to Optimize Your Meta Descriptions for Search Engines
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