Meta Description is a concept often mentioned in Onpage SEO. Meta Description tag is an important and indispensable part for website SEO, helping your article be appreciated by Google and attract users to click.
You need to understand what Meta Description is and know how to write this tag content well and properly. The purpose of this is to be friendly to the Google search engine as well as to users.
The following article will answer your questions about what is Meta Description? How to write Meta Description for SEO in 2021. Let’s find out!
I. What is Meta Description?
Meta Description sometimes also called description tag is a term that refers to a piece of text that describes the content in a web page, helping users as well as Google understand what you want to say inside that page.
In other words, the Meta Description tag is a shortened piece of content that has the most detailed meaning about the content you want to write inside the page of a website. This description will appear on Google, and it will encourage users to click on your page instead of other websites.
II. What is the purpose of using Meta Description?
Those of you who are learning SEO or those who are doing SEO, the element of the Meta Description tag is always the most appreciated and discussed. Take a look at the uses of the Meta Description tag as follows:
- Meta Description tags are extremely important because Google can use them as descriptions for your page. However, Google can automatically pick up a page’s display text if it matches the user’s query.
- In doing SEO, the Meta Description tag is the place for you to put the keywords to target, both to help influence Google’s search results, and to display content for searchers.
- Acts as a short ad on Google’s search results page, directly affecting whether users click or not.
- Describe as accurately and concisely as possible what the page is about.
With competitive SEO keywords, the Meta Description tag plays an important role in attracting users to your website.
III. How to create a quality Meta Description tag
1. Quality description
You should make sure that the description you use is descriptive. Because it’s not directly visible to the page viewer, the description is easily overlooked in the quality section.
However, it is displayed in the Google search results page – if the quality of this description is satisfactory. With just a little effort, you can create a reasonable description tag and it helps to accurately display the website content in the search results. It not only improves the quality of your website but also brings potential customers to the site.
2. The description must contain important information
The meta description tag doesn’t have to be a sentence structure, you can add structured data related to the page. For example, a news item or a personal blog post might list the author’s name, date, or article information. This information can provide the user with useful information that is otherwise difficult to not be used as a snippet.
Similarly product pages contain some important key information about price, date, manufacturer, etc. The description tag can contain all of the above information.
3. Create a different description for each page
Using duplicate or similar descriptions across all pages will not help when each page appears in the search results. In this case, Google will not prioritize displaying the meta description tag. Create a credible description that accurately reflects the content of each page.
Use the main domain-level description tag for the homepage or general pages, then apply the page-level descriptions to the rest. You should list the priority elements on your Web page, because if you don’t have the time to create a separate description for each page, at least create descriptions for important URLs such as the homepage or website unlike other popular sites.
4. Programmatically generate descriptions
For many news sites, it is quite simple to create an accurate description for each article because each article is very difficult to write while creating a separate semantic description requires only a little effort. For pages with large databases, manually writing description tags is extremely difficult.
In this case, the automatic generation of descriptions is very encouraging as long as they are not turned into spam content. A good description is the rich and semantic categorization that we just mentioned above.
IV. How to optimize Meta Description tag in SEO
1. Keyword optimization
If the search keyword is present in the Meta Description, Google will tend to use that Description tag and make it stand out in the search results page. You should put the keyword phrase inside the description tag. If the result matches the user’s query, it will be highlighted by the search engine.
On the other hand, implement keywords that are natural, content, and customer-oriented. Don’t make the keyword look like it’s grudgingly stuffed. And so, Google will easily find you, understand what you are talking about, and make the website more visited.
2. Write in a way that is easy to read and understand
Because the Description tag is not directly visible to the page viewer, it is easy to miss the quality stage. Remember that the user experience factor is always important and should be put on top.
So, put yourself in the shoes of the searcher and write a Meta Description tag that is “mindful”, accurate, informative, engaging and “sensational”. A quality description is very useful to users, while ensuring readability for Google.
3. View Meta Description as an advertisement for your website
Because the Meta Description tag does not necessarily follow a specific sentence structure, try to optimize the Description tag with data relevant to the page.
For example: A news item, or a personal blog post can list the author’s name, general information about the content; A product page may contain some important keywords about manufacturer, price, SKU, etc.
If the visitor has a particular need for that item or product, it is the presence of information such as price, specifications, etc. that stimulates their click.
4. Note the length
As noted above, there is no standard for true proper length. It completely depends on the message you want to convey, however, it should be presented in a concise and flexible way.
You also don’t need to worry when Google sometimes changes the length of the Meta Description, because it happens often as a meal! Most Meta Descriptions are now up to 155 characters, with some exceptions being 300 characters. So, try to arrange the important information in the first 155 characters of the Meta Description.
5. Make sure not to duplicate Meta Description
You are too lazy to “create” different Meta Descriptions for articles, so you decide to reuse similar, even duplicated descriptions on all pages? Sadly, that doesn’t help at all when each page appears in the search results, because Google will not prioritize displaying the Meta Description tag. Please optimize the Description tag reliably, accurately reflecting the content of each page.
6. How to write Meta Description to attract readers
- Reasonable length, you should only leave Meta Description in the range of 150 – 160 characters.
- Briefly correct the page topic. This is the function of the Meta Description tag: it should highlight the topic and problem-solving direction, so that the reader can understand what you want to write in that page.
- Content must engage the reader. When users skim, if they find the content interesting, they will read it carefully and are more likely to click on the article to see more.
- Contains the main keyword because the presence of the main keyword helps Google and users identify the topic quickly and clearly.
- Do not stuff keywords and should use keywords only once in the Meta Description tag, in the position as close to the beginning of the line as possible.
- Avoid duplicate content, each page should have a different Meta Description content.
- Do not use quotation marks in this tag. If you use it, Google will understand where the brackets are and will break the paragraph there. As a result, the trailer will be truncated beyond your expectations.
- Consider using structured data, which you can add other compelling information when the meta description tag shows up on the search results page.
Conclusion
Optimizing the Meta Description tag is a necessary action, and it is clear that the description tag is always important on every page. Even if it doesn’t play much of a role in Google’s keyword ranking process, a compelling Meta Description has the potential to increase a user’s click-through rate through organic search results. Friend, that will help you get more traffic, even if your website rankings stay the same. Hopefully, the article Ola City has just provided will help you add more useful knowledge to be able to apply it effectively in your SEO process. Good luck!
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Ola City Global
