Advantages of an effective meta-description

When it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices, the meta-description is a contentious issue. But could it be the obstacle standing in the way of your company, and your conversion target? Well, its certainly possible. Here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design experts. From Manchester to Southport, we work with companies and businesses across the North West, to deliver effective, high quality web design and web marketing solutions. This includes SEO. So just how important is the meta-description? And what exactly is it’s role?

What is the meta-description?

The meta description is a HTML tag that is fully customisable. So you can write whatever you like in there. This is the piece of text that usually appears on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) under each search result, although Google might generate search snippets for some results, which are slightly different. This little piece of text can be altered and customized as part of SEO practices, or search engines will pull the text from the page by choosing a random segment, usually from the first paragraph. So is it important? If search engines can fill in the meta-description for you, should you even bother? Well, the simple answer is yes.

What are the advantages of an effective meta-description?

With the meta-description you have a limited character segment that can help you to describe the contents of the page. For users, and website searchers, this brings a number of advantages and benefits, including:

• Showing how relevant your website will be- in a sea of search results, users skim over the meta-descriptions and make a decision about which link to follow based on what they read. If you take the time to add your customized meta-description, you might find that more people will choose your website, based on the additional information you can squeeze in. In comparison to a randomly selected sentence that Google will use instead, creating your own can be much more useful for users.
• Adding authority to your website- a website with a well written meta-description will seem more authoritative, trustworthy and reliable than a website with a snippet that doesn’t make sense, or cuts off half way through. All of these factors can influence users to select your website from the options available, instead of choosing a competitor.
• Including the keyword- your chosen keyword for the website or page, should be included in the meta-description as it will help show users what your content is about. If this matches or is relevant to the keyword they have searched for, you’ll find that you will get more click through’s on account of the meta-description being relevant to users.

Tips for an effective meta-description

• Include the keyword
• Be specific to your content so that searchers will know what to expect when they land on your web-page, and wont increase your bounce rate
• Get straight to the point, you don’t have much space for waffle!
• Make it interesting and entice browsers to want to click your search results, not your competitors

For more information and advice, get in touch with the professionals today, here at Pumpkin Web Design.