Tips to Writing Compelling Meta Descriptions that Boost Click Through Rates

Do you still pay attention to meta descriptions? While a meta description offers no guarantee of increasing search engine rankings, it can help boost clickthrough rates on your site.

Marketers tend to set aside this part of the content, though,  thinking it no longer matters. However, truth is neglecting it may cause you to miss out on a ton of opportunity to gather more visits to your site.

Apart from your page title and URL, the meta description is another information displayed on search engine results pages.  And it could be your last hope to getting that click from a prospective customer.

Any SEO company  in Singapore would also advise against setting aside meta descriptions. While this could mean you putting more effort in creating your content, the practice could pay off big time too.

What is a Meta Description?

Meta descriptions are snippets describing what a content is about. This part is important as it gives you the chance to persuade the reader to click on your content. You’d have to make the meta description informative, interesting, and most important, consistent to what the readers would find in the page.

Writing a compelling meta description can be difficult. You need to make it brief. Otherwise, search engines would cut it off. With practice, you’d get used to writing.  Note, though, that there’s no guarantee search engines would pick up the exact same description you provided. They could capture anything in your content that they deem more useful.

Still, don’t be too complacent just because your post is already located top of the page. The better  your meta description is, the higher your chances of getting visits. After all, as any SEO agency Singapore would also attest to, right next to the title, the meta description serves as a validation that the page is what the viewers are looking for.

Like any other online content, not everyone will scroll past the first page, let alone the bottom of the page.  The higher you go in the SERP, the higher your chances of getting views. You need to make your meta description as eye-catching as possible so you can compete with other pages that rank higher.

How Do You Add Meta Descriptions on Your Page?

The SEO agency  you’re working with would be able to assist you set up a tool so you can add meta descriptions in your post seamlessly.

They should be able to help you check whether the meta description is of the right length.  You can also let them take charge of it if copywriting is part of the SEO services Singapore they offered you.

Nevertheless, there’s nothing wrong picking up new knowledge especially that you’re running the business.

Tips for Writing Meta Descriptions

You probably are planning to review meta descriptions you’ve used for your pages and posts. Before you go into that, here are tips you may want to take note of.

• Keep it short. Maintain a length of 160 characters or less for each of your meta descriptions. Note that should you decide to add the date, that will have to be counted too. It’s best to keep it short as otherwise, it’ll get truncated. Also, you don’t need to add in more words to fill up the space if a short description would do.

• Make sure it’s unique. Every meta description you’re using should be unique. Devise a strategy so you can double check with ease whether you may have said the exact same statement in another post already. You don’t want to confuse search engine crawlers which particular post or page to rank for that particular meta description. As you write, tell yourself that this snippet should be original.

• It should be accurate. Don’t write a meta description just for the sake of intriguing readers. Nobody wants to be deceived that the post has the answer to their questions when it is about a different subject. Ask yourself what the page is about and what users would find on it. Don’t overpromise. And avoid being too gimmicky.

• Make it helpful. You’d want to provide the readers an overview of the information they would find on the post. No need to describe everything in full detail. Keep your audience curious and don’t disappoint them. If you say they’d find that information on your post, then they should be able to. Otherwise, you’re only disappointing your audience and that’s not good if your goal is to increase clickthroughs on your site.

• Consider adding contact details. You can as well add your contact details to the meta description if you deem appropriate. Again, don’t extend the word count just for the sake of filling up the characters.

• Include your keyword. Make sure to include your keyword as you would in your title but do not overdo it. Search engine crawlers are wise enough to determine whether you are over optimising for particular keywords. Rather than repeating the same phrase over again, consider using synonyms. That is if you really would need to mention it again. But if you can remove it, do so.

• Add call-to-action. Since you’re convincing the reader to check out your post, you might as well include a call to action on your meta description. If you’re offering anything for free on that page, you might want to mention it too.

• See about your competition. If you still are unsure how to get started writing your meta descriptions, go take a look at what your competitors have written. Do not copy. See about their tone and approach, though. And then write your own depending on the content you’re describing.

• Don’t forget to monitor.  Part of any online marketing strategy is testing your efforts. See how improving your meta descriptions helped improve your clickthrough rate.  Don’t hesitate to tweak your approach. Experiment and write your meta descriptions in varying approach and see which works best.

Writing a compelling meta description will always be well worth it. It won’t guarantee increased rankings. However, it could help a lot in increasing your chances of getting noticed and earning another lead in the process.