SEO Tips for the Meta Description Tag

byboomergp08

31.1K followers

Updated 9 years ago

We all want our website to be on Google Page 1. So in this post I will give you some SEO tips for the Meta Description Tag that will help to achieve that goal. Now you may be wondering, is the Meta Description Tag important? It most certainly is, because it is the second most important aspect that people will look at in the search engines, that will make them want to click on your link.

DO YOU HAVE A GOOD CTR?

Not only do you want to be on Google Page 1 for either your targeted keyword or a keyword from a popular search query, as described in my last training blog, but you want to have a good enough Meta Description that will entice those looking through the search engines, to click on your link. If you have a snippet of text that accurately and fully explains what your page is about, your CTR (Click Through Rate) will go up.

For the majority of people who use the All In One SEO Pack plugin, this training blog is a must for you to implement. Why? Because the All In One SEO Pack plugin will automatically create your Meta Description Tag from the first 160 character spaces of your content. If you do not start out your content by explaining what your page is all about and include your keyword, you will not rank as high and/or your CTR will not be as high.

EXAMPLE OF ALL IN ONE SEO DESCRIPTION

The below image will show you what the All In One SEO Pack automatically created Meta Description looks like, for my DS Domination scam review. My keyword for this page of content on my website is, "Is DS Domination a Scam" as is displayed in the beginning of the page title.

As you can see in the highlighted text of the Meta Description, the first 160 characters of my content are not that enticing. So what I did was manually type up a more descriptive Meta Description Tag. However Google will only display the snippet that you typed up if it best answers the search query. The one I manually typed up does not answer my keyword well enough so Google displays what the All In One has created. Sometimes Google will display their own, based on other text within your content. How can I correct this?

Well if this page was not already on Google Page 1, position 7, and moving up, I would experiment by creating another manually written Meta Description to see if I have better luck. In the video at the bottom of this post, Matt Cutts explains that experimenting with different Meta Descriptions will help your web page SEO & CTR.

USING THE 1ST 160 CHARACTERS CORRECTLY

In the image below you will see two different DS Domination posts I have on my website that appear on Google Page 1, positions 4 and 5. Searching the keyword "DS Domination Monopoly Review" the top displayed post shows the first 140 out of 160 characters of my content. I made sure that my keyword and what the post was about, was written in the first 140 character spaces. Now you maybe asking yourself, why is it not showing all 160 character spaces?

That is because of the 15 character spaces being used by the date "Nov 13, 2014 - " and the remaining 5 characters are truncated because the word I used was more than 5 characters long. So when I either manually type in the Meta Description or write the very beginning content of my post, I make sure that my first 140 character spaces include my targeted keyword and a clear enough description of what the post is going to be about.

The bottom post in position 5 is showing an example of a Meta Description snippet that Google has created from other text indexed within my content. As you can see from the Bold Text, that is why Google is displaying that particular post for my search query of the keyword "DS Domination Monopoly Review."

HOW MANY WAYS IS IT DISPLAYED?

Three different ways: 1) You pay no attention and do nothing. Then the All In One SEO Pack automatically generates it from the first 160 character spaces of your content. 2) You do pay attention and begin your content by including your keyword and best description within the first 140 character spaces. 3) You manually create a Meta Description Tag with your keyword and hope that Google will display it, should it be a better answer to the search query.

Yes I know that is a lot to absorb. But once you realize how important your Meta Description is for those searching of answers in the search engines, I hope that these SEO tips for the Meta Description Tag that I have shared here today, will help you to gain better search rankings and click through rates. - Make sure to watch the video by Matt Cutts below where he explains that the Keyword Meta Tag is NOT important but that the Meta Description is. - If you have any questions (I bet you will) or comments, please leave them below the video.