Read More

Everyone wants their website ranked on the first page of Google searches for any particular keyword. Given that Google commands around a 92% share of the world search engine market, this is hardly surprising. Ever since Google hit the internet in 1996, the company has constantly been tweaking the way it ranks sites, and it’s the job of SEO experts and internet marketers to keep one step ahead of the Google algorithm. Most marketers will have tried all the techniques such as keyword stuffing, producing high quality content or getting as many backlinks as possible to try to get that top ranking spot.

One of the most misunderstood elements of digital marketing is the meta description. A recent study showed that as many as 25% of top-ranked sites have no meta description at all, so is having a good meta description really as important as experts say?

Meta Description – A Definition

A meta description is a small paragraph which is used to give a brief summary of the contents in a page. It is a tag used in HTML website when writing a webpage. This is the small paragraph which users see in their list of search results, designed to give some sort of idea about the contents of a page before they clock through and look at it. A meta description can be up to 160 characters long.

Most experts agree that the most important thing to include in a metal description is the key word or phrase which you are trying to get the web page ranked for. When users type a search into Google, the words they use in their search appear in bold type in the results. If a user sees their search terms reflected in bold type in your metal description, they know that your particular page contains the information they are looking for.

Conversely, if you decide not to use the key words or phrases in the meta description, then you’re running the risk of a user deciding that your website isn’t what they are looking for and will click away onto one of your competitor sites. Experts advise treating a meta description like any other marketing. Try to get your brand messaging and keywords into the tag, and include a call to action to get customers to click through onto your website.

Meta Descriptions and Google Ranking

Even if meta descriptions are important from a user’s point of view, how important are they for ranking on Google? According to industry experts meta tags are perhaps not as important for Google ranking as you might think. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay any attention to what goes into the meta tag – as mentioned above, a well-crafted metatag description can improve user experience and help drive visitors to your website. There is evidence that click through rate from a search engine is greatly increased when the results page has an informative metatag. Treat metatags like any other website copy which should be optimised for keywords and quality.