There are many pieces to the puzzle with search engine optimization, and one of them is the meta description tag. This is very important so don’t overlook it because this tag will show up in the actual search results so you get higher in the search engine rankings. This is a wonderful way to entice potential traffic to see what your website is all about once they read the meta description tag.
Make sure you include your keywords or keyword phrase in that description tag as well. This will help you get it higher in the search results. You need to make sure your meta description tag is clear and to the point. You won’t have too much room for it so keep it short and sweet. You want it to offer a good description about what the web page offers. You also want to have the keywords in there that your niche market could be using to find information.
The image below is an example of how the meta description tag appears in the search results. The meta description tag appears in black below:
When you write meta description tags, the focus should be on which keywords you want to focus on. They can be different for each page of your website too. They need to be to the point and they need to be accurate in terms of adequately describing what the consumer is going to find on a particular web page. If you are using the same meta description tags on every web page then you are missing out on a key opportunity for effective SEO practices.
A Longer Meta Description Tag
Google is now giving us even more characters in the search results, so we can write longer meta description tags now (as of May 2017).
Don’t go back and rewrite all of your meta description tags. If you’re editing the page for other reasons, consider revising the meta description tag. New pages should get natural sounding meta description tags, up to 300 characters in length. Write well, don’t stuff keywords. Quite often, less is more.