Using meta descriptions

This week I’ve been learning about meta descriptions and why we need to use them if we’re going to attract attention from the right people in search engines. If we take a look at the picture above, we can see the meta description for my photography site. It’s the part at the bottom of the image that starts ‘Contemporary wedding photography...’ If no meta description is entered for a page, it will pull up the first text on that page as a default. The problem with this is that this text might just be an introductory paragraph on your page which won’t necessarily contain the right keywords, and it might cut off mid sentence. This is because search engines generally only display meta descriptions up to 160 characters. To write a meta description, think about how you would summarise your site in a tweet (with a little bit of leeway!) It should say what your site is and include your main keywords. The meta description should be a way to show Google what your site is and what it’s all about. It will see the way you’ve described your site and know exactly what it is dealing with so it can select your site more easily when people search for your terms. Not only that, but it’s useful for the person doing the searching to be able to see what they’ll find on your site without having to click onto it. If the summary makes it look relevant, they will be more likely to enter your site. The reverse is also true: if your site doesn’t seem to contain what the searcher is looking for, they won’t need to come onto your site, which might help to reduce your bounce rate – a sign that people are leaving your site soon after clicking onto it. Meta descriptions are hugely helpful but often overlooked, so make sure you’ve got yours sorted!