How to Correctly Fill in the Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description Tag plays a key role in terms of search engine results: mastering the writing of this short text is hugely beneficial, which is why you should read this article to understand how to correctly fill out the Meta Description Tag.
Once you’ve filled in the title of your article and completed the quality content, it’s time to fill in the Meta Description Tag. But first, let’s start with a brief introduction to this concept.
The Meta Description is a short description of the website, which describes what it is about, and we see it in the search query.
The description can be set manually. If this isn’t done, the search engine will create one automatically.
If you look at it from the perspective of SEO promotion and search engine optimisation, then it is better to always set the description yourself( without relying on the search engine). When writing the description, make sure you take into account the fact that it needs to have a positive effect on the position in search engines and help increase site traffic – we will delve into this later.
Step-by-step instructions for filling in the description meta tag
Step 1
At the beginning of the description, enter the keyword used for promoting the webpage. For example, if you have the “Laptops” product category in an online store in Los Angeles, then your description should start with “Laptops in Los Angeles”: it’s extremely helpful to include both the type of product you’re selling as well as the location, which serves as the key decisive points for potential customers.
Step 2.
Next comes the sales supplement, which is focused on commercial queries. Here, you write: “Laptops in Los Angeles-buy a laptop at a price of $300”. People who want to buy a laptop in the query usually specify things like “buy, order, cost or price” – therefore, you should recycle these queries and include them in the description so that they are readable.
Step 3.
Benefits. Next, we can talk about the delivery or the customer/quality guarantee. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to include everything you’d like to here because the description is only limited to 140 characters: “Laptops in Los Angeles-buy a laptop at a price of $ 300. Delivery. Guaranteed.”
Step 4.
Call to action. Here, you have two possible options:
– A call to action for the user to visit the website: “Laptops in Los Angeles – buy a laptop at a price of $300. Delivery. Guarantee. Check out over 200 models directly on the website”.
– Specify the phone number/address: “Laptops in Los Angeles-buy a laptop at a price of $350. Delivery. Guarantee. Call 77777777”.
A phone number is more suitable when it comes to the service sector, and the call to visit the website is relevant when you have a catalogue and/or an online store.
Step 5.
Distinctiveness. Because anyone can write a description, the search engine requires the description to be unique.
How can you make it unique? You can add the name of your company or the website address: “Laptops in Los Angeles-buy a laptop starting at $ 300 at Newegg. Delivery. Guarantee.”
Step 6.
Emojis. To make the description more visually appealing and to stand out from your competitors, you can add emojis. Just make sure that these emoticons correspond to the topic and don’t replace keywords at any cost. For example, you can replace the word “phone” and add product icons — “💻 Laptops in Los Angeles 💻 – Buy a laptop for the price of $ 300. Delivery. Guarantee. Call ☎ 7777777 or visit the website.”
How to add the Meta Description to your website
For each page on the website, the Meta Description Tag, as well as the title, are written separately. To add a Description to your website, you need to add it to each page. For self-written websites, this procedure will have to be done manually, and for websites running a CMS, you can choose from a variety of different plug-ins.
1. Self-written websites and HTML – at the beginning of the code, between the <head> and </head>, insert the <Description> tag and add in the new description.
2. WordPress – install any of the following plug-ins:
– Yoast Seo is one of the best plug-ins in terms of SEO optimization. In addition to editing metadata, the plug-in has optimization tips for each page.
– All in One SEO Pack – more suitable for beginners and works similarly to Yoast.
3. Joomla
– Sh404sef – a smart component for Joomla in all respects and easy to manage! It has a wide range of settings in its arsenal, which help you to improve SEO.
– JoomSEF by ARTIO – somewhat similar to the sh404SEF, but less powerful. There is, however, a free version.
How to link your .ART domain to your website Read More
Examples of correct and incorrect descriptions
Here are some striking examples of correctly filled out meta tags descriptions. The query: “Construction of frame houses in Oregon”.
All websites in the Top 3 have a keyword at the beginning of the Description. This does not mean that just one substitution of a keyword at the beginning of the meta description of the page can help put the site to the top of the search results, but it is one of the most important factors when it comes to SEO.