While a lot of focus is put on the meta title, you shouldn’t forget about the meta description! An engaging meta description works wonders in helping to boost your click-through rate (CTR), and it signals relevance to search engines.

It is common these days that search engines (like Google) are replacing your assigned meta description with a more relevant chunk of text from the page. However, as this isn’t always the case, you should have a proper meta description for every page.

With a background in SEO, I have been writing meta descriptions for my entire career. In this time, I’ve picked up a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. Now, I’m ready to pass this wisdom onto you!

Keep reading to see some of my top tips for creating more effective meta descriptions:

Don’t Go Past 155 Characters

It’s a description, not an essay after all! While there isn’t one “right” length for your meta description, you shouldn’t go past 155 characters. This should be enough to express your message effectively. If you look at some of the other listings in search engines, you’ll see the majority of them sit around the 120 to 156 character mark.

Google has come out and said you can make your meta description as long as you like. However, at a certain point, your description will be cut off with an ellipsis, so it’s best to keep things as short and punchy as possible.

Include Your Focus Keyword

Each page on your website should have a list of target keywords, with one or two high-priority keywords. The focus keyword assigned to the page should be included in the meta description. You shouldn’t be keyword stuffing here; instead, add your focus keyword into your description naturally.

If the search matches some of the keywords used in your description, Google may be more inclined to use the meta description you wrote. They may even highlight those words (and synonyms) in the search results.

Add a Call-To-Action (CTA)

It’s a good idea to always include a CTA within your meta description. Be specific with your CTAs, clearly explaining to users what you want them to do. Just like including CTAs in your PPC ads, you should place enough resources into making them as persuasive as possible.

You’re trying to “sell” users on a page on your website. So, think about what makes your page better than all the other ones listed in the search engine results? CTAs like “get it now”, “learn more”, “try for free”, and more are great places to start.

Use an Active Voice

CTAs are all about creating action, but you should be using an active voice all throughout your meta description (not solely for the CTA). Your whole meta description should act like an invitation to users to visit your page. 

What’s the motivation for users to visit your page over others? Ensuring you have an engaging description that isn’t boring or confusing to understand is critical. Clearly explain what users can expect to find when they go to this specific page.

Meta descriptions do hold a bit of weight in terms of SEO. It’s important you put enough focus into creating descriptions that are engaging and work well to improve your CTR. I’ve got ample experience in meta description creation, so if you’d rather leave it to the professionals, reach out 🤙