Don’t underestimate the power of meta descriptions! They’re a very important part of search marketing as they’re the first things people read when they see your website on search results pages. A really good meta description catches people’s attention and encourages them to pick your website above all others.
Don’t underestimate how easy it is to write meta descriptions, either. Some are more effective than others at tackling user intent and providing information. So, if you want to learn how to write the best meta descriptions, here are the top tips Los Angeles SEO companies employ for theirs. We hope you find it helpful!
Tips in Writing Good Meta Descriptions
Look at Your Competition
If you want to know how to improve your own website, you need to look at your competitors. These are the people you’re trying to beat, after all. If they’re ranked higher than you, then they’re probably employing techniques that are working well for them.
As meta descriptions are the first things people read when searching for something, it makes sense that your competitors might have better meta descriptions than you. Try and follow their meta description styles and see if it works out for you too.
Use Customer’s Journey
Customer journey mapping is the process of understanding buying goods and services from a customer’s perspective. It looks at how customers act on their customer’s journey from awareness to findability to reputation to conversion and advocacy. It applies to a lot of things from social media marketing, content creating, and, you guessed it, meta description writing.
Look at your website pages and see how they fit into your target audience’s buying journey. Then, optimize your meta descriptions accordingly.
Use the Right Tone
Every business has a way of talking with its customers. Motherhood-based websites might sound caring and sweet, while law firm websites might sound professional and confident. You’ll want to follow the same tone you use in your customers with your meta descriptions.
Add in Keywords
While Google insists that keyword optimization in meta descriptions won’t affect your rankings, keywords do get highlighted in search snippets. Searchers will see these highlighted words and naturally gravitate toward them.
Aim to include one keyword or phrase in your meta description. It might not matter to Google, but it certainly could for your customers!
Keep Up with the Trends
You’ve probably been told to keep up with trends for your social media strategies, but did you know the same thing applies to meta descriptions too?
You should use analytical tools like Google Trends and BuzzSumo to find trending topics and articles in your industry. Look at your own webpage and see if any of them could fit the trend, then get to work on optimizing their meta descriptions!
You can also use trends to figure out what to write. For example, if your target audience is mainly Gen Z-ers and there are new terms and catchphrases they like to say, you can include that in your meta descriptions.
Be Specific
Don’t be too general with hollow words, sales-speak, and clickbait. Nobody wants to see something like, “Click here for the best exercise tips ever!” when they’re searching for ways to tone muscles.
Your meta descriptions must have answers to the questions they’re looking for. You’re encouraging searchers to visit your website by offering valuable content and information, not forcing them to listen to your blatant sales pitch. That would seriously just turn off any searcher from visiting your website.
Refresh Old Meta Descriptions
Clothes aren’t the only thing that goes out of fashion. Your meta descriptions do too.
If you’ve got a couple of pages on your website that are stale or don’t get as much traction anymore, new meta descriptions may be the breath of fresh air they need. Consider going through old pages and replacing their meta descriptions with ones that are more in with the times. You can bring old pages back to life on your social media websites and possibly gain more visibility and traffic!