We’ll tell you what we want, what we really, really want. We want all small businesses, creative entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations to have well written, keyword filled meta descriptions within the backend of their websites. It doesn’t matter what your website backend looks like, or where it is hosted on – Showit, WordPress, Wix, SquareSpace, Shopify, or BlueHost – meta descriptions are crucial for search engine optimization and optimizing your search results rating.

What makes a great meta description?

The meta description is an HTML tag you can set for a post or page of your website. Basically, you can use roughly 155 characters to describe what your page is about. If you’re lucky, Google will show it beneath your page’s title in the search results. It allows you to convince search engine users that your page will offer what they are looking for.

Here’s a list of elements you need to write a good meta description:

1. Keep your meta description up to 155 characters
2. Use an active voice and make it actionable
3. Convince them to click! Include a call to action
4. Use your focus key phrase. Include keywords throughout your sentence(s)
5. Show specifications when needed
6. Make sure it matches the content of the page
7. Make it unique! Make sure your web page sound interesting and worthy of clicking on.

Why do meta descriptions matter?

They are super important for your SEO, so if you want people to find you on Google, you want to care about your meta descriptions. They help people understand a general idea of the content on a website before they actually click on it.

A good meta description convinces people that your page offers the best result to their query. But, to be the best result, you must know what people are looking for. What is their search intent? Are they looking for an answer to a question? If they are, try to give them the most complete answer. Are they looking for a product? Write down what makes your product stand out and why they would best buy it in your store. Be concise and convincing!

How do I get started in writing a meta description?

Use the Google preview section in your blog editing or page editing tool. If you want to write a meta description, click on “Google preview”. This will open the snippet editor and you’ll see input fields to edit the SEO title, the slug and the meta description. When you start typing in the meta description input field, the snippet preview at the top of the Google preview editor will immediately show your new text.

Here’s what not to do with meta descriptions

When writing your meta description, the number one rule to follow is to create a new meta description for every single page of your website.

Google (and other search engine) bots can differentiate this information. In each page, we beg you, please craft a new meta description with unique keywords related to this particular page of your website.

Another hot top! Do not stuff extra keywords into the meta description. Google knows when you are trying to trick it, seriously. Adding extra words that are irrelevant to the content of each page, or blog post, may harm your search engine optimization and search results ranking.

Thanks for reading!

We absolutely love all things website design here at Unicorn Marketing Co.

Check out our other blog posts to learn more about website design and development, such as why a mobile view is so important.

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