How to write an effective meta-description?

The meta-description is a meta tag designed to present the content of a web page It is displayed in the search results of the various search engines as a snippet below the title tag (meta_title) to provide an overview of the context.

Admittedly, the meta-description attribute is not an essential positioning factor, and Google only displays it in SERPs 37% of the time. On the other hand, it’s still part of SEO on-page, a strategy used to optimize the content of a page you want to rank on Google. This means that every web content editor needs to master the art of writing meta-descriptions.

In this article, you’ll find some tips for creating meta-descriptions quickly and efficiently. We’ll also show you how to audit them properly. But first, we’ll look at why meta-descriptions still matter despite their at first glance low importance for SEO.

Why do meta descriptions still need work?

Having a compelling meta-description incentivizes more Internet users to click on your website from the search results. This is important even if, as we’ve already pointed out, Google only displays meta-descriptions 37% of the time.

For example, if you register 50,000 page views per month, Google displays your meta-description for 18,500 of these page views on average. But it’s worth remembering that a 1% increase in your Click Through Rate (CTR) or click-through rate can already generate nearly 185 additional clicks.

So, even if you shouldn’t be focused on meta-descriptions, it’s still worth devoting some of your time to writing it, especially if it’s a page likely to generate organic traffic and be shared on social networks

Indeed, when a page is shared on social networks, it extracts the description from the Open Graph meta tags But if you haven’t defined an OG description for Facebook or Twitter, it automatically uses the meta-description you’ve written instead. Therefore, if you want to work on just one of these tags, it will be the meta-description.

How to write a meta-description

• Start with the title tag or meta title

Always think of the meta description as something that complements the meta title. The latter should summarize the page in question with a few main keywords that characterize the subject. The meta description serves to develop the title tag further.

You need to write a brief description that makes users want to click on your link instead of another. To do this, the title must be punchy and relevant at the same time. It must announce that your content is the most interesting and enriched of all.

• Meet the intent

Navigation intent or search intent is the “why” behind a query. In other words, it corresponds to what people are looking for when they type in your main keyword You need to determine this factor to provide the right information in your meta-description. To achieve this goal, ask yourself the following questions:

• • Do your target web users want information? If so, which ones?
  • Do they want to buy a product? If so, which one?
  • Are they looking for a specific website?
  • Do they want a quick answer to a question?

Here you can use existing search results as templates. Google strives to provide the most relevant results for users. So look for commonalities in the snippets on the first results page and use them wisely in your meta description.

• Use the active voice

The active voice is clearer and more easily generates a click by addressing the target directly Each sentence deploys a precise verb and makes the user the subject. In other words, you show that he’s performing the action. On the other hand, passive voice is dull and rather demotivating.Active-form sentences are the easiest to understand because readers immediately see who’s doing the action.

• Be concise/precise

Meta descriptions aren’t for storytelling. Every word counts because users quickly decide what to click on by hovering over the results. Don’t forget that descriptions are truncated after a certain length.

At present, the length is set at 160 characters or so on computer and 120 characters or so on mobile There are SEO tools / plugins that enable you to write good meta-descriptions at the right length.

You need to analyze whether you should optimize your metas for computer or mobile users. It all depends on your audience, but generally speaking, smartphone searches are becoming increasingly frequent. If you opt for descriptions for desktop users, still make sure that mobinauts have all the information they need about the text length (120 characters) displayed in mobile SERPs.

• Writing the meta-description

It’s easiest to use a content management system or CMS. In Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and most other CMSs, for example, you’ll find a text box for typing or pasting your meta-description in the backoffice. In WordPress, plugins such as Yoast, SEOPress and RankMath offer the same functionality. We recommend SEOPress for this part.

If you’re not using a CMS, simply paste the meta description tag into the <head> section of your HTML code.

How to optimize the creation and editing of meta descriptions

Every time you create a new web page, it’s a good idea to give it a good meta-description. But that’s not enough. We advise you to perform an audit to see if your pages do indeed have relevant meta-descriptions.

This doesn’t necessarily mean checking your entire site for meta-descriptions. Instead, focus on the pages that generate the most traffic That’s when a better meta-description can make a real difference.

To help you with this task, you can use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush. These are dedicated SEO tools. To audit your meta-descriptions, use the Site Audit function of these tools, then sort your pages according to their organic traffic to examine the most important tags

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