SEO firms love meta descriptions. They can tell a search engine bot a lot about the fundamental purpose of a website. Often, they are better than the meta tags used.
So, what is a meta description? Meta descriptions are short descriptions of the subject matter on a web page located in the <head> section to help the search engines understand the content. Meta tag descriptions are an additional chance to tell the search engine what the page is all about. A targeted meta description can improve a website’s visibility.
Search engines often use the meta description as the text they display in the search results. The more relevant the description, the better the ranking the site will get for a specific keyword or phrase.
You can see the meta description from our website in the example below, taken from the organic search section of Google for SEO Experts Australia:
So, let’s consider some basic rules for the use of meta descriptions:
• The meta description tag should not exceed 150 characters including spaces. • Meta descriptions should typically be one to two sentences in length. • Make sure the description is accurate and also entices human visitors. • Include two to three of the most important keyword phrases, especially those used in the page title and the page’s actual text content. • Try to position the most important keywords near the beginning of the description. • Make sure the description makes sense to users since it may be displayed to thousands of potential customers in the search results – be relevant but be compelling!
