10 Ways to Create Great META Descriptions

Another important aspect of SEO copywriting is creating a relevant and compelling META description.

Your META description is the text that appears in the search engine results under the page title as shown here:

If you don’t have one in the coding of your website, Google will take a snippet from your page copy. The problem with that is that it may not be relevant and probably won’t convey the message you want to get across to your reader.

Your META description is what will differentiate you from your competitors. It is an opportunity to stand out from the crowd and attract the ‘click’ to your site.

To help you make the most of your META description, I’ve put together a list of 10 ways to create a great one:

1. Unique – remember Google lists pages not websites so make sure each page of your website has a unique META description.
2. Complement the page title – whatever you write for your page title, your META description should complement it. After all, if your page title tells your reader one thing and the description another, they won’t click on your link.
3. Complete sentences – it is important that your description is meaningful so make sure you use full sentences.
4. Stand out – this is your chance to make your site stand out from your competitors. Don’t just follow what everyone has written, make your mark.
5. Product names – if you have product name that is well known get it in your description. Show people exactly what you sell.
6. Offers – if you have an offer such as free p+p, make sure it goes into your description.
7. 160 characters – Google only shows approximately 160 characters in the META description so make sure you stick to the limit. You can use the run off to your advantage though if you can engineer your description so the … appear at a point that will make your reader click the link to read more.
8. Factual – make sure what you tell people in your description comes across as factual as this carries weight.
9. CTA – if you can, get a call to action into your description to get your reader to take immediate action by clicking on your link.
10. Don’t copy your page title – try to use different a different word order to that in your page title. By all means use your keywords but add modifiers so your reader isn’t reading the same information twice.

If you are unsure how to use the META description, a good SEO copywriter will be able to help you.

Remember this may be the first contact you’ll have with a reader. It may only be 160 characters long, but everyone is important and should be made to count.