Meta Description – 2020 SEO Best Practices

SEO practices are ruling the cyber world through their approachable nature. Every SEO analyst is using these practices to gear up their business. The concept of Meta description is one of such SEO practices that are used by all adept online marketers. It is one of the powerful tools of marketing that enhances the business of the enterprise.

The giant company Google maintains all Meta description best practices for its marketing moves. Google also helps other enterprises to work on Meta description best practices through its SEO course. However, Google doesn’t help with the rankings of the website.

If you are also curious about the best Meta Description practices then this post will unfold it to you comprehensively. However, first thing first, let us start with what actually meta description is-

3 Reasons Why You Should Still Use Meta Descriptions

Most SEO’s might find themselves asking “If meta descriptions don’t count into the rankings algorithm, why should I use them?” The answer to that is simple. Stop thinking about them as a ranking factor, and start thinking about them as a conversion factor. Here are some great reasons to still keep your meta description in mind on your website including your homepage, internal pages, blog posts, and so on.

Even if the keyword you use in the meta description doesn’t help in search rankings, it still might help in getting a searchers attention. When someone searches for a particular keyword or phrase, it will be bolded in search results where ever it appears. So if you are targeting that keyword, you will want it to stand out. In this set of results for search engine, which results jump out to you?

It goes to show why your top keyword phrase should be in your SEO title and meta description! You wouldn’t want to be the one result in this list that had no bolded keywords for that search. So be sure your meta description uses the keywords you are targeting and is written in a way that will encourage searchers to click on that result.

Whenever you share a page on social networks like Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn, each site will pull either the meta description or the first sentence or two of the post as the description to show in the share. The meta description will usually be shown in its entirety, while the first sentence or two of your post will end up cut off with ellipsis […]. While you can edit the description for Facebook and LinkedIn, not everyone sharing your page will do so.

This means that if your first sentence or two on the page doesn’t sum it up well, people who see the share might miss the point. Hence, if you want your page’s shares to get the most clicks on social media, consider creating a strong meta description that will encourage clicks, just like you would for search results.

A few examples of networks that do include meta descriptions are: Digg, BizSugar, and My SEO Community. Just about any social bookmarking / voting network built on the Pligg CMS system will also use the meta description first. While you can edit the descriptions on these networks, you can’t count on whether others who submit your pages will. Plus, if you don’t have to edit the descriptions, then you save a little work for yourself if you are submitting your own pages.

Good examples of meta descriptions

Although the keywords are further down the description than perhaps they ought to be, the reason why this result is so appealing is the way the copy draws you in with emotive (and mouth-watering) language.

Things really are getting too meta. Here Moz has managed to exactly describe what a meta description is, within its own meta description, which is terribly helpful. Although do note that the snippet is a lot longer than normally allowed by Google.

Bad examples of meta descriptions

I’m not really interested in the history of rubbish burgers in London, I want to know where to get a tasty burger now! This meta description also fails to include the ‘best’ keyword from its own title tag.

I’m not sure if there’s something blocking Google’s ability to crawl the webpage properly, but a website called ‘High Rankings’ should really know better than this…

Get the Latest
daily news and insights about search engine marketing, SEO and paid search.

Resources

Market Research The State of Content Marketing 2023 Global Report

The State of Content Marketing report provides a bird’s eye view of top content marketing trends and an in-depth manual on how to build your content strategy and workflow in 2023. Download Now

Content Modular Content Is The Key To Customizing Experiences At Scale

In this workbook, we’ll take you through what it takes to write standout content that achieves real business goals. You’ll work through practical tasks and learn how to develop a content plan, write engagingly, and deliver a ton of value to your audience. Download Now

Market Research The Semrush Content Writing Workbook

Market Research Data-Driven Market Research and Competitive Analysis

In today’s highly competitive environment, accurate and timely data can be the key difference between keeping tabs on, getting ahead of, or being left behind the competition. This eBook gives a detailed insight into how you can perform in-depth market analysis using the Semrush .Trends toolkit. In particular, it explains how the reports and features in Market Explorer and Traffic Analytics can paint an accurate picture of your target market, and allow you to closely analyze the strategies and performance of your competitors. Supported by examples, the eBook provides detailed instruction and insight into: – Researching new markets and niches. – Analyzing your competitors’ marketing strategies. – Uncovering your competitors’ top-performing pages (and what you can learn from them). – Searching for gaps and insights in your rivals’ strategies. Download Now

Sources:

https://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/meta-description-2020-seo-best-practices/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/meta-description-magic/
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2016/05/26/how-to-write-meta-descriptions-for-seo-with-good-and-bad-examples/