By Kayla Carmicheal

I’ll be the first one to admit it: the first time I wrote a blog post, I had a lot of new terminology to learn.

Specifically, I didn’t know the purpose of a meta description and why adding one to a blog post was so important. After all, wouldn’t Google highlight the most relevant part of my blog in search results? Not quite.

This post will show you why meta descriptions are important and how to write effective ones. Before all that, though, let’s discuss what a meta description is.

What is a meta description?

A meta description is the snippet of information below the blue link of a search result. Its purpose is to describe the contents of the page to the searcher.

Any words that match the search term are bolded in the description. The end goal is to convince and persuade the searcher to click through to your website.

Here is an example of a meta description as it would show up on a search engine results (SERP) page:

Notice that, because the query is “What is inbound marketing?”, the two words are bolded in that meta description.

Also notice how the meta description gives a clear and concise snapshot of the topic, which signals to the reader what they can expect.

To remain visible within Google, you should keep your meta descriptions somewhere between 140-160 characters in length.

Why are meta descriptions important?

Meta descriptions are important because they let Google know what your webpage will be about. If Google can read and comprehend the content of your meta description, they will have an easier chance of ranking your page to answer search queries.

🧡 TL;DR: Meta descriptions increase organic traffic and bring more eyes to your webpages.

If you don’t include a meta description, Google will display a snippet of text from the first paragraph of your page. If there’s a search keyword in that text, it’ll be bolded. While this isn’t a bad thing, not including a meta description means missing out on the chance to personalize the message you deliver to browsers.

Meta Description Examples

Meta descriptions should be quick, one- to two-sentence summaries of the content within your web page. They should tell the reader what they can expect to find after clicking on your link. For example, here’s a meta description for a data-driven marketing report:

This meta description accurately describes what will be found in the report, who is presenting the information, and why the content will be helpful to readers. If browsers were typing in queries such as, “SEO trends in 2021,” it’s likely that this meta description will appear in their results.

Meta descriptions follow a few simple rules: They’re short, descriptive, and use keywords. But after that, you have free reign to play around with what they will say. Use this to your advantage when you’re creating your meta description:

<img src="https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-13%20at%204.21.44%20PM.png?width=1172&name=Screen%20Shot%202022-04-13%20at%204.21.44%20PM.png" alt="Screen Shot 2022-04-13 at 4.21.44 PM" width="1172" style="width: …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron