Let me know if you're having this problem:
Website does not have a lot of visitors even though it is at the top of the search results page?
Even if you have tried to combine many techniques to optimize your website, it seems that all efforts still do not bring the expected results.
However, what if I said that: Traffic to the website can be increased immediately with just the Meta Description tag? One of the considered factors of Onpage SEO.
So what is the Meta Description tag ? What are its benefits and how to increase CTR and rank with Meta Description? Let's see the article now! Because all the knowledge has been compiled by me right here!
What are meta tags?
Meta tag, also known as Meta Tag, is a tag that declares the title of a page, this tag will help the title of that website to be fully displayed when searched. Tags represent lines of code placed on top of an HTML page, with information such as title, language, description, author, etc. to provide information when searched. Therefore, it has an important meaning in the Onpage SEO process.
What is Meta Description?
The Meta Description tag is a 155-160 character summary description tag that appears below your website on the search engine results page (SERP). Meta Description briefly describes the article content, from which search engines and readers can better understand the topic of the website.
What is Meta Description?
In other words, the Meta Description tag helps you find the results that best suit your needs. The WordPress Meta Description tag will appear below the page title (Title) when a user types his query into the internet search bar!
In many cases, the Meta Description can also be viewed as a Meta Tag. Because the text does not appear directly on the page, it is attached to the Meta Description tag and displayed in the HTML.
HTML Code
And here's a visual example of how the Meta Description looks as HTML Code:
<meta name="description" content="Bạn có biết, tối ưu thẻ Meta Description giúp tăng 400% CTR cho Website? Click xem ngay 15 Cách viết Meta Description lợi hại!" />
Optimal format
Meta descriptions can be any length, but Google typically truncates snippets to around 155–160 characters. It's best to keep the Meta Description long enough for them to be descriptive enough, so I recommend using descriptions between 50–160 characters. Remember that the “optimal” length will vary from situation to situation, and your primary goal should be to provide value and drive clicks.
Google Ranking Factor
While not tied to search engine rankings, it is extremely important in getting users to click through from the SERPs. These short paragraphs are your chance to “advertise” your content to searchers and your chance to decide if the content is relevant and contains the information they are looking for from their search query.
The meta description of the page should make smart use (read: in a natural, working, non-spam way) using the keywords the page is targeting, but also create a compelling description that searchers will want click. It should be directly related to the page it describes and unique to descriptions for other pages.
Importance of Meta Description tag
A good Meta Description tag will give you the following 3 benefits:
Attract users to visit your website, increase click-through rate (CTR) on both Google and social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, ...)
Helps search engines get an overview of the page's content for better ranking.
Optimizing the user experience, helping them quickly grasp the content they are about to access.
Failing to create a quality Meta Description tag also means that you are wasting a golden marketing opportunity.
At this time, your business may face 2 cases:
Case 1 – Forgetting the Meta Description tag
There are still many users who do not know or do not understand the importance of meta tags, so they often ignore them. This is one of 13 common technical SEO mistakes that you need to fix.
And Google will only display the Meta Description tag in the search results. If you do not write, Google will take any content in the article to insert it, and sometimes it creates a meaningless Meta Description tag like the example below:
Example of a meaningless Meta Description
Really, no one is interested in these meaningless Meta Description tags. But, surprisingly, even the top businesses sometimes make the same mistake. Like Coca-Cola in the example above.
Case 2 – Write a superficial Meta Description
The description tag is written in a superficial way that easily causes inaccurate search results. Regarding the length of the description, there is a lot of information as follows:
In 2015, Google required that a Meta Description tag should only contain 150-160 characters. If you write longer, the Meta Description will automatically be shortened.
At the end of November 2017, RankRanger's tools increased the Meta Description tag length to 230 characters.
In early 2018, there were a number of blog posts that reported that Google decided to change the Meta Description length from 160 to 320, even 375 characters.
Meta Description tag length
However, this information is still vague.
Multiple sources of information on standard number of characters in a Meta Description
I bet, when you search for the keywords “ Meta Description length ” or “ What is Meta Description ” , … you will find a lot of different information about the character count of the Meta Description.
Research information about description tag length in SEO
All 3 descriptions are truncated by Google but have a different number of characters. Therefore, some industry experts advise you to be very careful. Do not immediately rush to follow the movement to add or remove your Meta Description tag.
How to Add Meta Description in WordPress
Meta Description tags usually do not appear directly on the web page. So they need to be imported into the content management system (CMS) for all the pages on your website.
There are so many different types of websites out there these days that it's hard for me to give a uniform guide to all of them. Instead, I will take my own experience to share with you.
Specific example for how I insert Meta Description for my website
Instructions on how to change the Meta Description tag on the WordPress interface
15 tips for writing the right Meta Description
What is meta description and how to optimize click-through rate based on actual data.
Now let's get started!
#first. Add WordPress Meta Description tag in SEO tab
How to insert Meta Description tag in web page? First, when creating a new post in the CMS, below the SEO tab bar there will be a blank section for you to fill in the Meta Description information:
Add Meta Description tag
#2. Add Meta Description tag with Yoast SEO Plugin
One of the ways to add Meta Description tag to WordPress and change the content of the description tag in WordPress, you install and set up Yoast SEO and then perform the following steps in turn:
Step 1: Choose an existing site or create a new post yourself
Select an existing post or post a new one
Step 2: Adjust Yoast SEO
Adjust the Meta Description tag on Yoast SEO
Step 3: Create a quality description line
Write your Meta Description Tag here
Step 4: Save draft, publish
Most Social Media Platforms only use the Meta Description tag when the website appears on their page.
Draft or publish your article
Choose to save the meta snippet in 1 of 3 ways depending on your intentions:
Save Draft : Draft article or Meta Description still needs editing, you don't want to post the article yet.
Publish : The article & Meta Description tag is complete, now it's time to publish it on the website.
Update : The article has been published before, just need to update with a new Meta Description.
So you have successfully changed the content of the Meta Description !
Yoast SEO is not the only SEO tool, but it is considered a utility tool chosen by the majority of SEOers for their WordPress. You can learn more tools here.
15 How to write a very standard Meta Description tag
With the desire to create quality meta descriptions that can greatly increase CTR, I had to spend time analyzing the writing style of hundreds of reputable businesses.
This list includes both the 100 most famous brands in the world as well as the top 40 most valuable companies in Vietnam voted by Forbes magazine in 2019.
However, during my research, I discovered that not all large businesses have quality descriptions.
In fact, some of the Meta Description tags on the list are worth learning. However, besides that, there are still some pretty normal Meta Descriptions, not very impressive and even surprisingly bad.
After doing some research, here are 15 helpful ways to write with specific examples I've gathered.
Maybe you are interested: Learning to write C content attracts users from the first words.
1/ Meta Description Length – Up to 150 characters (preferably 120)
There is a question, how many characters is the Meta Description? Usually Meta Description tags can be of any length. However, Google usually cuts them into paragraphs ~ 155 - 160 characters. As I said above, to suit the mobile interface, it is best to write about 120 characters.
Sometimes in the Meta Description tag, Google also shows the date of the article's publication, or review, or even lists the Heading directly in the Meta Description tag, you should also subtract these characters first.
The Publish date of the article appears in the Meta Description tag.
Therefore, your primary goal should be to provide value and increase clicks. So try to convey the most important and engaging information in the first 120 characters of this description.
However, you must consider these three important points:
Google has not publicly confirmed anything about the length of the Meta Description tag.
Google displays the number of characters in the Meta Description as specified by most searches.
Even with more characters, the extra content in the Meta Description appears to have come from the web page, and not from any Meta Description tags you insert.
In general, Google is still trying to test whether the longer Meta Description tag will help with the user's search process.
Nothing is certain yet. So until you get the official announcement, just follow the guidelines so far.
2/ Create a unique Meta Description tag
All the description tags on your site need to be different. If your description tag is similar to the description tag of other pages, it is easy to confuse users.
Your meta description should be aimed at human readers, not search engines.
If you don't have time then it's better to leave it blank. Google will choose a paragraph containing keywords in your article to display.
3/ Write in a positive, engaging voice
If you consider the Meta Description as an invitation to the website, then you should not use metaphors or technical words that require brainstorming.
Make them as friendly, concise, and understandable as possible. At the same time, the words in the Meta Description tag need to be carefully selected and highly persuasive.
Attractive Meta Description tag template of PNJ website
With only the phrases "leading in Asia" , "holding the number one position" , PNJ has been quite successful in convincing you to buy from them.
4/ Make the most of meta titles
Have you ever wondered what a meta title is? It's essentially the title of a regular article. In search results, the meta title is right above the Meta Description (or Meta Tag). Here is an example of an engaging meta title.
Title (Meta) vs Meta Description Tag
A catchy headline really gives your entire description a surprising effect, helping to deliver an important message. The meta title has been inserted into your CMS (the folder where the meta titles are stored is usually right next to where you entered the Meta Description ).
To ensure relevance, headings need to be much shorter than the Meta Description tag. The best length for a meta title is <65 characters, if the title is longer it will be shortened by Google.
5/ Highlight the brand identity
This is the ultimate form of marketing to redefine a distinctive identity or brand promise you want to build. Especially the Meta Description for hompage pages.
Only through a brief introduction sentence, Vinamilk once again easily created a good impression in the hearts of consumers.
Vinamilk uses Meta Description to introduce the company's characteristics
6/ Attach CTA – Call to Action
It would be great if you could add offers like: See more, get now, free trial, etc. to the description. Combined with a positive voice, you will create a highlight and attract users to click more.
7/ Contains Focus Keyword
If the search keywords match part of the Meta Description paragraph, Google will highlight them. This will make the link to your website more attractive.
Featured search keywords in Meta Description
Note: Do not try to cram too many keywords into the tag. It will not affect too much for SEO work.
7 ways to write standard SEO articles that Google loves and ranks high!
8/ Display specifications
If you're selling a product for tech-savvy people, focus and show the specs in this section. They can be manufacturer name, module, product price, etc. These display information will trigger more clicks (increase CTR).
9/ Contains related content
This is extremely important! Google will find and may penalize websites with Meta Descriptions that mislead visitors to the page.
Furthermore, this meta fragment that deviates from the content will increase the bounce rate. Therefore, always make sure that your Meta Description matches the content of the website.
Increase the power of website relevancy in the eyes of Google immediately after applying the Silo structure. Do you know what Silo Structure is?
10/ Do not use quotation marks in the Meta Description tag
Google will cut the description in quotes used in the HTML of a Meta Description when it appears on the SERP.
To prevent this, you should remove all non-alphanumeric characters from this meta. If you must insert quotes, use HTML Entity instead.
11/ Consider using Rich Snippets
Rich Snippets are currently being used quite widely in many websites. It is a piece of information displayed in the form of stars, images, ratings, reviews, etc.
Consider using Rich Snippet for Meta Description
It will help the website stand out and help users have a realistic experience. Seeing reviews or images from the search results page will encourage users to click on your website more.
Optimizing images for web sites : 5 important tips to SEO images to the top of Google . Find out now!
12/ Contains information about what you are doing
Don't be shy about hiding what you're doing. The shyness in marketing has never worked out well. If possible, make a descriptive card about your business overview.
Take a look at the example below:
Introduce the industry through your Meta Description
Even though I don't know anything about Mobile World, I would immediately know all the information about this website just through the description above. Just one search, you already know, isn't it very convenient?
13/ Offer special offers
It's also an ideal form of advertising for any discounts or offers you're running. Basically, the more attractive offers you offer, the better:
Use Meta Description to introduce offers
14/ Always be creative
Creativity has always been one of the top elements of marketing. Although only a few short characters, Frito-Lay's description completely gave me a feeling of interest and curiosity:
Frito-lay writes creative Meta Description
With just one simple sentence, users can realize the value that Frito-lay can bring: "the best snack" , "happy to enjoy with snacks" .
15/ Review the Meta Description before posting
When starting to write meta tags, you should research and create interactions with your potential customers first.
Don't forget to double check the Meta Keywords tag before posting
How to write SEO standard Meta Description
To write a standard SEO Meta Description, you need to keep the following points in mind.
There are main keywords
Keywords are the most important factor in writing SEO standard Meta Description. You have to make sure your most important keywords for the site show up in the meta description. Usually search engines will highlight where it found the searcher's query in your meta description tag.
For example, when searching for the keyword "seo services"
The keyword "seo service" is highlighted in bold
Write an easy-to-read Meta Description
Write a description that is easy to read and, of course, relevant to the searcher's needs. Writing easy-to-read meta descriptions is essential to writing SEO-friendly meta descriptions.
If you try to cram too many keywords into the meta description tag, it will make users think you are a spammy site and this is not in your favor. Usually, you should start the Meta Description tag with a keyword and the whole body should only contain 1-2 words. Make sure your description reads like a normal, human-written sentence.
Attractive content that matches the page
Create a really compelling content to attract readers, this greatly influences the customer's decision. And most importantly, still match the content in the article and what customers are looking for.
This is an example when I search for the keyword “What is Onpage SEO?”
Example of SEO standard Meta Description
Reasonable length
As I said above, a meta description should be up to 150 characters long (preferably 120) although recently Google is experimenting with longer paragraphs.
Otherwise, your meta description will lose the rest of your content. So make sure any important keywords are near the front. So don't try to write too long and tasteless.
Unduplicated
Another important factor in writing SEO standard Meta Description. As with the title tag, the meta description should be written differently for each page. Google may penalize you for bulk copying your meta description.
Use interesting code snippets
Few people notice this, but when you use it using schema markup, you can add elements to the description tag to increase their appeal.
For example: star rating, customer rating, product information, calories, etc.
Add ranking factors to meta tags
How to add Emoji to Title tag and Meta description
The Meta Title tag is the title tag displayed on the search engine results page and on the bar in the browser window. Meta Description is a summary of the content of the article, usually the optimal number of characters is from 155 to 160 characters. These are two important tags and need to be optimized to increase the website's search rankings.
In addition to following Google's algorithm to optimize, create attractive, creative, and seo-standard content, adding emojis also helps your content stand out more. The more prominent will increase the ability to be selected, increase the ability to click on the website.
In addition, adding emojis to the Meta Title and Meta Description tags makes your content more attractive and attractive. Emoji are very popular with young people, dry, rigid text content can be softer when adding emojis. Therefore, adding emoji brings many positive changes to the website, which is one of the factors that help increase rankings significantly.
If you want to add emoji for these two sections, you just need to copy the desired emoji and paste them where you want, just like using regular text. Perhaps this is a simple way but produces unexpected results.
Bonus: Meta Description for homepage & product/service page
Each type of page will have a different description, so will the homepage or product / web service pages. To attract readers, add more clicks, you can refer to the following writing method:
Meta Description for the homepage
To get attractive, optimized and professional content, when writing the Meta Description tag for the homepage, it should be noted:
Homepage Meta Description Tag Length
The description seems easy to write at first. But how you have to encapsulate in 120-150 characters but also highlight the main content of your website is not easy.
As I said above, everything should stop at 120 characters is best, but make sure it's interesting enough to retain users and fit their needs.
Contents of the Meta Description tag for the homepage
All of this happens so quickly, the searcher probably won't even notice that they've just made a decision. They will just enter the link to satisfy their curiosity without giving it much thought.
Meta Description tag for Hompage GTV SEO
As you can see with only 25 words (118 characters) GTV SEO has made an impression on customers. With the first 2 words "GTV SEO" you can already know about the SEO company Ho Chi Minh City that the company provides. And the remaining words specifically emphasize the best values GTV has to offer:
Rebranding
Increase traffic
Increase revenue
In particular, these values are capitalized, which can attract the attention of the majority of users.
The call to action is close, concise and highly effective.
Meta Description for the product / service page
The product/service page will be different from the homepage, so when writing content for the product/service page Meta Description you need to keep in mind:
The Meta Description tag should not contain the entire content of the homepage
Writing Meta Description for product pages is often a bit easier than writing for hompages. Because on product pages you don't have to write all about your business. Should not contain the entire content of the homepage, when writing in the content will be redundant and duplicated.
What solution does Meta Description provide?
Instead of copying the description of the homepage, you should say what brings tangible value to the shopper. For example, if your business sells kitchen utensils, let your users know that your product will make cooking so much easier.
Another example for a product/service page – GTV SEO Training Course.
Meta Description for GTV's SEO Mastermind Course
Right in the description, I have outlined what you can learn in the SEO Mastermind course. The description is brief but it's pretty complete about the value you can get from this course.
To create an effective Meta Tag for the product page, I have some advice for you:
Make your product different from the competition.
Offer the best value that customers can get through the product.
Capitalizing some important parts is a good practice. Note, do not write all caps!
Use CTA or wording that pique the curiosity of users to click on your title immediately.
An unfinished ending in the Meta Description will most likely increase your click-through rate a lot.
A few good/bad examples of Meta Description
Good Meta Description tag example
Following are some examples of good Meta Descriptions that fulfill the above requirements.
Example 1:
A good description of Nshape Fitness
The above description above is only 27 words (131 characters) but it is extremely effective. The content of the description highlighted the pain that users experienced:
"Safe weight loss"
“fast weight loss in 1 week”
"no drugs"
Example 2:
An example of a good, quality Meta Description
This Meta Description contains the Focus Keyword at the beginning of the paragraph, which is a plus. Although only with 26 words (134 characters), it gives readers a part of the definition of 4P marketing.
The call to "see now" urges users to click on the article.
For example, the Meta Description tag is not good
Example 1:
Example Meta Description in the article “What is a Backlink?” not good
Although this meta description contains the main keyword “backlink” , it will not attract readers. A quote that is said to be quite general and unimpressive, is not enough to make users curious about the article. I need to revise the Meta Description of this post.
Example 2:
Let's say I have an injury and I search "how to treat the wound" to find a solution. And I see this description. If it were you, would you like to click on this article right away?
A bad Meta Description template of Hello Bacsi
Really this Meta Description is not enough to attract me. It does have some strengths though: Write it down to 30 words (133 characters) by the standards of a Meta Description.
However, the content of the Meta Description has not been optimized according to the user's intent. It does not highlight the treatment the user is looking for.
Instead, this description is stating the harm of an infected wound that is not handled properly that the user already knows.
Some questions related to meta description
1. What are the most important meta tags today?
As mentioned above, the most important meta tags are still title tag, meta description, meta content-type. If you want to know what the tags mean, read through the important meta tags section to find out what they mean, and the tags that are appropriate for your website.
2. Does Google take the content of the meta description tag to rank the website?
Yes. Google evaluates the article content and includes the meta description, so this tag is also a factor affecting website ranking.
3. How to check the meta description tag on a web page?
To test your meta description tag to see if it is working effectively, you can use some tools to check. For example, using HEY META, you enter the URL in the input, the descriptive information about the website will appear such as title, description, featured image. From there you can check the card you have set up.
Epilogue
The above is all the knowledge to help you understand what Meta Description is as well as know how to write a standard Meta Description. And understand why so many people want to optimize this Meta Description.
Without a description tag, you will miss the opportunity to direct the attention of customers to your website. This is a serious mistake that should not be made.
Spend some time analyzing your website or see how industry experts have done it. Learn from their own successes and failures.
Besides optimizing Meta Description , you can also refer to the video below to easily optimize Onpage effectively!
Now it's your turn, try writing yourself impressive descriptions that attract users!
Good luck!
References:
“How to create the right meta description” – Yoast | https://yoast.com/meta-descriptions/
“The Importance of Meta Descriptions for SEO” – WordStream | https://www.wordstream.com/meta-description
“How to Write Meta Descriptions that Drive Traffic and Conversions” – Shopify | https://www.shopify.com/blog/how-to-write-meta-descriptions
#gtvseo #gtv_seo #meta_description
Thông tin liên hệ:
GTV SEO
Địa chỉ: Số 91, Đường số 6, Khu dân cư Cityland Park Hills, Phường 10, Quận Gò Vấp, TP. HCM
SĐT: 0919-009-319
Email: info@gtvseo.com
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