What is a Meta Description?
The meta-description is a HTML tag that describes web page content. This description will appear below your page title and URL search results. The meta description must be between 70 and 155 characters.
Meta Description Example
A meta description for this page could be:
“In this article, you will learn all about meta description. We'll talk about what they are, how to write them, and why they're important for your site's SEO.”
For example, how this meta-description is viewed in the page code:
<head> <meta name="description" content="In this article, you will learn all about meta description. We'll talk about what they are, how to write them, and why they're important for your site's SEO."></head>
Why are Meta Descriptions Important?
Because meta descriptions appear alongside your title and URL on results pages, they can both help and hurt your results' click-through rate.
In terms of search results, your meta description has the most footprint (two lines of text compared to one line for the title and one line for URL), so take the opportunity to get users interested in using your site.
How do you write a meta-description?
Think about your search results, like ads in newspapers or magazines. Print advertisements use headings and labels to induce a person to call a telephone number or to buy shop products at an address.
In search results, your page title is the headline in the newspaper, your meta description is the slogan, and the URL is the address. Since the meta description is essentially a micropitch for the web page, you should fill it in such a way that people want to click to your site.
Meta Description Tips
To attract visitors from the search, use the following description:
- Aim for 1-2 sentences (70-155 characters) long
- Use the target keyword
- Target an emotion
- Add a call to action to entice a link to click
- Avoid duplicate meta descriptions
- Make it meaningful so that the text matches the content of your page
Useful online meta description checker tool
On-page SEO Checker - This tool analyzes your website. It will give you a list of warnings, recommendation, and where exactly the website is having trouble, including missing and duplicate meta description.