5 Meta Description Tips to Rock Your CTR

When it comes to SEO, there’s only so much you can do on-page. High-quality content needs to be supported by optimization on the back-end, as well. Few of these optimization techniques are as powerful as writing a strong meta description.

Meta descriptions are often ignored since they no longer carry strong weight in terms of ranking signals. But think about how important they are for searchers. For that reason, SEOs need to care. There’s more to driving organic search traffic than just the ranking. Regardless of where your result appears, you still need to get the searcher to click on your listing.

Meta descriptions are just like content in that they’re both for search engines and for users. When combing through the first page of search results, the two things they pay attention to (Authorship aside), are the headline and, you guessed it, the meta description. Those two elements are a huge factor in deciding which link to click on.

So want a higher click-through rate? Follow these tips for a rockin’ meta:

1. Keep your meta description short

While Google states the limit for the length of your meta description is 160 characters, you’ll want to keep it shorter than that. 150-155 is a good number to shoot for. You want it to be short and sweet, but you still want to get your point across (just like this post!).

2. Bust out a keyword or two

Just like with the rest of your content strategy, you want to incorporate keywords into your meta description. However, remember that you only have 160 characters, max. Even if you’re not targeting a long-tail keyword, one occurrance of the keyword will take up a large proportion of the description. Use your keyword once, maybe twice, but definitely spend the majority of the description supporting the keyword rather than using it.

3. Talk to the searcher

A lot of meta descriptions are filled with technical, jargony language that does nothing to entice the reader to click. If anything, they’ll want to stay away because they might assume your whole website will be filled with that confusing language. Instead, engage in a (short) conversation with the reader, inviting them to visit your website.

4. Include a call-to-action

Expanding on the last tip, there’s no better way to make your website seem inviting to the visitor than to actually invite the visitor. Include a call-to-action just as you would with any other marketing copy. For example, a call-to-action in the meta description for this post might include something about learning to improve meta descriptions (now this really is getting meta).

5. Supplement the page title

Once more, you don’t have a lot of space. Don’t waste space telling the searcher something they already learned in the title. For example, if your page’s title includes the words “red sweaters,” that’s 12 characters that could be used to describe more information about the sweaters. Use the description to add to the title rather than restate it.

How do you go about writing your page’s descriptions?

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