When you’re creating an email campaign you probably put a lot of thought into your subject lines, right? Because you want as many people as possible to open them.

Well, when you write a blog post or product page, do you put just as much effort into your meta description?

No? Then you might as well just tell organic visitors to check out the next search result down.

What’s a meta description?

A meta description is a snippet of text (usually around 155 characters) that appears below your page’s title in search results. It advertises the content on that page and it’s your chance to tell people why they need to click through to your site - and not your competitors. 

Time and time again though, people leave their meta descriptions down to chance, banking on Google picking a killer excerpt from their page. But, if you want to smash your SEO targets, that just won’t do. 

A properly put together meta description can:

• Improve organic click-through rates

• Increase SEO-lead visits

• Reduce bounce rates

• Support conversion targets

How to write a click-worthy meta description

1. Keep an eye on your length: Make sure all your important information is in the first 155 characters. After that, there’s a good chance whatever you write will get truncated and no-one will see it. As with any type of writing, short, snappy and to-the-point wins every time.

2. Inspire action: Let searchers know what they’ll walk away with if they enter your site by clearly communicating key benefits and inducing a sense of urgency. 

For example, if it’s a blog on ‘Why meta descriptions are important’ don’t just start summarizing the page’s content, dive straight in with the benefits, a bit like this:

Increase your organic traffic, leads and conversions today by understanding and implementing the power of your page’s meta descriptions.

3. Include a call-to-action (CTA): Remember, your meta description is your sales pitch for the page it’s linked to, so make use of CTAs like you would with any other type of advert. Phrases like ‘learn more’, ‘get it now, ‘come on in’, and ‘try for free’ ought to do the trick.

4. Use relevant keywords: Don’t go keyword crazy by adding keywords into every other word because you think keywords are the answer to your keyword problems. See what we did there? Keep it natural. 

Generally speaking, Google’s more likely to use a meta description that includes text that matches all or part of a searcher’s query. 

As an added bonus, they’ll also highlight corresponding keywords making your listing even more compelling, like this:

 5. Make sure it matches your content: Luring people into your site with misleading meta descriptions won’t work; Google’s smarter than that and they’ve been known to penalize people for it.

It’s not just for Google’s sake though. Enticing visitors in under false pretences will just irritate them and result in more bounces straight back out as soon as they realize they’ve been taken for a ride, and that won’t do your reputation any favors.

Hue & Tone Creative: greensboro graphic design

If you know what you need to do but you don’t have the manpower to do it, we can help. We’re pros when it comes to creating copy and design that converts. Get in touch with the team at (336) 365-8559 or hannah@hueandtonecreative.com to take the first step.