What is a Meta Description?

Whenever you search on Google or Bing the results shown always come in the following formula:

Site Name

Url/web-address

Meta description – a quick summary of the business.

As you can see above, the meta description is the brief summary of the business which is used by Search Engines and Searchers alike to identify whether that business is relevant to the search.  Essentially, it’s an elevator pitch.  Here’s what comes up when you search ‘contact Naik Media’:

As well as including the search term itself, we describe our services and methods you can use to contact us.

You have one chance to get the essence of your business across to your potential customer – and in not many words!  You’ll know from searching on the internet, more often than not, you scan rather than read the descriptions.

‘Different Approaches’

Therefore, your meta-description must serve three functions:

1. Tell search engines what your business is using essential key-words.
2. Convince the searcher yours is the business they want!

Here’s where it becomes a little tricky: you have about 150 words to effectively convey to the searcher why your business is top-dog, but some of those words must be key-words to be identified by the search engine.  So, there are three methods to writing your meta-description:

1.  The SPAM approach –

If you shout key-words loud enough, people will hear you right?  Load your meta description with key words until it is a jumbled mess that engages no-one but the Googlebots.   This is a hazardous approach, and not recommended.  An example for a tinned meat product could be:

“TINNED MEAT, MEAT, MEATY, TIN, BUY, SPAM, SPAMMY, EGG, SPAM, BEANS, SPAM”

Pros:

• As you can see, the key-words and their alternatives are covered!
• Search engine bots will have no problem identifying what your site is about.

Cons:

• It does not engage the reader.
• It doesn’t tell a human what your website is about.
• This spammy approach will put off potential clickers – it looks dodgy!
• You may be penalised by search engines for spam (you might find yourself ranked lower because you’re trying to ‘cheat’ the system).

2. The Life Story Approach –

This goes completely the other way, attempting to engage the reader without using any key-words which the bots will be looking for.  In some ways, its worse than doing the spammy approach.  Here’s an example for an SEO tips blog:

“Have you ever had a problem getting your message across?  Is nobody clicking on your website?  We can help you with that.  Our years of experience working with clients will…”

Pros:

• Questions are always good at engaging people and this description sells the business
• People know this was written by a human, for human readers and are more likely to look properly.

Cons:

• Not one key-word: this description could be for many different things, but how does Bing know this is a blog about SEO tips?
• The last ‘con’ is big enough to cover two points at least!  You will not rank if the Search Engines don’t know what your site is about!

3.  The Goldilocks Approach –

Here we are, the prized middle-ground:  A meta description that has both engaging prose and essential keywords…Here’s ours for our SEO Consultancy page:

“Cumbria SEO | Consultancy for Cumbrian businesses Naik Media offers proven techniques to help improve your Google/Bing Search score. Rank higher and better!”

Pros:

• Search Engines know what your site is about
• Searchers are engaged and read your description, and learn what your site is about from that
• You site will rank higher
• More people will click on your site

Cons:

• Writing these is both an art and a science.  It’s not easy to get it right.

‘What to do’

So, how do you create a meta description that covers all the bases?  Follow these steps:

1. Read our blog post on ‘Thinking As A Customer’ to find out more on getting great keywords
2. Research what similar companies have written on their meta-description and emulate the best attributes of theirs (but don’t steal theirs – that’s not cool!)
3. (Optional!) Contact Naik Media for bespoke SEO consultancy specific to your business!

We hope this helps you understand what your meta description is, and why it’s so important.  Want to know more?  Get email notifications of new blog posts by checking the box below, or get in touch with Naik Media SEO Consultancy.