You’re working arduous to market your organization. You’re writing your product descriptions, optimizing your pictures, and mastering many of the different parts of efficient SEO (search engine optimization).
Nonetheless, in case you’re like many enterprise house owners, one side of ecommerce search engine optimization could possibly be providing you with bother: meta descriptions. This information covers what meta descriptions are, and the right way to write compelling meta descriptions and optimize your web site for search engines like google and yahoo.
What’s a meta description?
A meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes a webpage’s content material. It’s the snippet of textual content, usually round 160 characters lengthy, that seems below your web page title in search engine consequence pages.
Within the screenshot beneath, the meta description reads “Strive Shopify free and begin a enterprise or develop an current one. Get greater than ecommerce software program with instruments to handle each a part of your small business.”
Engines like google present it in search outcomes when the meta description additionally contains the key phrases being searched. Not like the web page title, meta descriptions aren’t an search engine optimization rating issue, however they do entice customers to click on by means of to a web page and are a part of efficient on-page search engine optimization. You’ll see them in a web page’s code as <meta title=”description” content material=”a written description of the web page”>.
A meta description is the promise you make to searchers. Amongst a sea of competing webpages, it calls out to them and says, “That is the web page you’re in search of.”
Whenever you sort a search question into Google—let’s use “momentary tattoos” for example—the algorithm shows outcomes on the search engine outcomes web page (SERP).
This web page is extraordinarily difficult, however for now let’s ignore all of the procuring adverts, pictures, and movies in favor of the extra conventional natural search outcomes.
The blue phrases on the high are the “title tag.” They’re the title of the webpage. Beneath them you’ll see a web page description of not more than 155 characters. That is the meta description.
Does Google rewrite meta descriptions?
Sure, Google rewrites meta descriptions. So, why trouble writing meta descriptions if Google will show no matter it desires anyway?
The final word motive is the correlation between greater search quantity key phrases and decrease rewrite charges. Kim Herrington, an search engine optimization & SEM marketing consultant, has specific experience in writing meta descriptions for ecommerce companies, in addition to with optimizing their shops for search.
By means of Kim’s personal expertise, she’s discovered that if shops goal excessive site visitors key phrases, your unique meta description is extra more likely to seem as you wrote it in your web site. “search engine optimization could be time consuming and costly for ecommerce shops with a excessive quantity of merchandise,” Kim says. “Approaching your meta descriptions realizing they’ll be rewritten can unencumber sources.”
Way more productive, she suggests, is specializing in writing actually good meta descriptions to your highest quantity key phrases, as a result of Google is extra doubtless to make use of them: “Focus primarily in your bestsellers and class web page meta descriptions relatively than each single merchandise you promote.”
Concentrate on the pages that get essentially the most natural site visitors from search engines like google and yahoo. Take your high 10 or 20 pages and ask, “Are we actually promoting the product right here, or is there a means we are able to enhance the click-through charge?”
Meta description examples
Homepage
Studying different individuals’s meta descriptions will make the method look deceptively easy, however that simplicity is the very factor that makes it so arduous to jot down. The tough 160-character restrict means the meta description can’t be for much longer than a tweet.
Good descriptions offer you a short overview of what the positioning is about, in addition to a compelling motive to click on the title tag. All of it occurs so rapidly and painlessly, many searchers gained’t even discover themselves making a call. They’ll merely click on on the hyperlink, satisfying their curiosity with out having to consider it.
Right here’s an instance of an ideal meta description:
Intelligent naming helps Dying Want Espresso pack a punch right here. With the primary three phrases, “Dying Want Espresso,” you already get an concept of what the corporate sells (espresso) and its defining model function (hardcore, however tongue-in-cheek about it).
Dying Want then says it’s “right here to gas your ardour.” With these phrases, it positions itself as motivating. The phrases “highest high quality arabica + robusta” lets readers know the model sells good espresso merchandise.
Product web page
Writing meta descriptions to your product pages is a bit of simpler than writing them to your homepage, as a result of your product pages aren’t supposed to talk for your small business as an entire.
As an alternative, they’re talking for one thing that gives a tangible profit to consumers:
- Promoting spatulas? Let the reader know that this spatula will make cooking a lot simpler.
- Promoting garden mowers? Have the reader think about a quick and straightforward journey by means of the grass.
For a great instance of a persuasive meta description, let’s try the search consequence for So Value Loving stickers:
Instantly, and in all caps, the outline makes you notice that a whole lot of stickers don’t final so long as you need them to. Then, SWL guarantees that its stickers resolve that drawback.
Capitalizing the meta description is a daring transfer, and I actually wouldn’t advocate capitalizing the entire thing. However right here it really works, as a result of the capitalization doesn’t appear to be it’s there simply to seize consideration. It additionally does the work of separating the word from the remainder of the textual content. After the word, this description works effectively as a result of it retains the concentrate on the reader.
You do want to offer some concept of what differentiates the product. So Value Loving does this by emphasizing sturdiness and by letting its web site title counsel that its stickers are going to be actually, actually cool. However after that, it’s all about letting the shopper visualize themselves with the product.
The outline suggests the enjoyment a purchaser would possibly get once they see the sticker as a “greatest little reminder,” providing numerous methods the sticker may simply match into their life: “Stick them in your automotive, laptop computer, water bottle, wherever you wish to see them.”
The ending, particularly, works superbly. It begins the sentence by suggesting the product will make you’re feeling some highly effective emotion, however then it makes you click on the title tag to seek out out what that emotion really is.
Although some search engine optimization consultants will let you know to verify your meta descriptions all end with full sentences, a half-sentence can do wonders to your click-through charge (CTR).
For those who’re going to make use of this technique, it’s good to get your meta description as near the tough 160-character restrict as attainable.
Class pages
The subsequent meta descriptions to concentrate on are your class web page, or assortment web page, meta descriptions. The aim of this web page is to group related merchandise collectively for patrons to browse. Assortment pages can present up for broad, high-volume key phrases, like “ladies’s footwear” or “males’s sandals.”
Your class web page meta description ought to draw individuals in by displaying related details about the gathering, like how DSW lists out the totally different shoe varieties in its ladies’s footwear class.
It additionally makes use of easy motion phrases like “Store on-line for …” and “take pleasure in a big choice and free delivery …” to encourage clicks from browsers.
If you wish to boost your description, Doug Pierce, Director of Hong Kong–primarily based advertising and marketing company Cogney, suggests utilizing emojis. “A trick I prefer to make use of is utilizing test marks (✔️) to name out the sub-collections of merchandise we’ve if it’s a product assortment web page,” he says.
Doug additionally suggests together with numbers within the description (the place related) and utilizing energy phrases like “free” or “unique” to seize individuals’s consideration. And in case your retailer is working any particular presents—like free delivery, prolonged warranties, or gross sales—it may be good to incorporate in a meta description as effectively.
Easy methods to write a great meta description
Now that we’ve an understanding of meta descriptions, you’re most likely questioning: What are the perfect methods to use this data to my enterprise?
- Think about the shopper mindset
- Make it distinctive
- Hold it at optimum size
- Make it actionable
- Add a name to motion
- Use your goal key phrase
- Attempt to keep away from meta description mills
1. Think about the shopper mindset
First, concentrate on what would compel a searcher to click on in your title tag. That requires answering two questions:
- What are you providing?
- Why ought to I purchase from you?
For product pages, the primary question has a easy response: you’re providing your product. The second might be resolved by the straightforward truth that you just’re the one promoting the product.
Meta descriptions to your homepage are a bit of trickier. As we noticed within the Dying Want Espresso instance, the perfect factor is to repeatedly emphasize your model. That’s the one factor your complete retailer presents, and it’s the explanation prospects can purchase from you.
Picture: courtesy of Google2. Make it distinctive
Let readers know what you do, inform them about your distinctive promoting proposition, and convey this data a number of instances, as a result of the meta description isn’t a spot for subtlety. Struggling to give you an efficient meta description to your homepage is widespread, so it’s greatest to be affected person and assume arduous about your model.
For those who’ve been round for some time, what do returning prospects say about your small business? And in case you’re new, what made you assume this enterprise would get prospects?
The aim of your meta description is to get clicks, however it’s additionally an opportunity to indicate off your model. “Consider meta descriptions as a continuation of your model and a chance to obviously outline your USP [unique selling proposition] utilizing related key phrases,” says Stephen Mild, CMO and co-owner of mattress firm Nolah. “They’re little adverts and, although the character size can really feel constraining, are wonderful brief bursts of promo.”
Discuss to individuals about your small business, formulate the outline such as you would an elevator pitch. You’ll most likely wish to undergo a pair drafts. It’s vital to get issues proper as a result of this would be the first publicity many shoppers should you and your model. You additionally don’t wish to have duplicate meta descriptions all through your web site, as a result of it may hurt your possibilities of rating.
Picture: courtesy of Google3. Hold it at optimum size
Keep between the 155- to 160-character restrict when contemplating your meta description size. Google will doubtless minimize off any textual content after that. Put your most vital textual content at first of your description, similar to motion phrases or a couple of phrases about your model, like Fashion Nova does beneath.
4. Make it actionable
Consider meta descriptions because the welcome mat to your ecommerce retailer. Ensure that your description is obvious, thrilling, and actionable. Inform readers what they need to anticipate in your web page.
Keep away from utilizing too many adjectives or fancy phrases—whereas it’s tempting to jot down “superior” or “showstopping,” it would detract searchers from clicking by means of. For those who do use inventive copy, make sure that it’s related.
This description beneath from Bonobos is a superb instance. It’s brief and motivating, and it addresses the reader straight. You already know you’re going to seek out an ideal pair of costume pants by clicking by means of.
Picture: courtesy of Google
5. Add a name to motion
A name to motion in your meta description will compel individuals to click on by means of to your web page. They assist readers perceive what you provide and what to anticipate after clicking. For ecommerce shops, concentrate on totally different motivations behind their search.
If somebody’s in search of a extra broad search time period, like ladies’s footwear, you’ll discover a whole lot of class pages rating. Folks use class pages to browse, versus product pages the place they purchase. Mirror these intentions in your name to motion.
Some name to motion examples for ecommerce are:
- Store now
- Discover the gathering
- Uncover new tendencies
- Browse our merchandise
Picture: courtesy of Google 6. Use your goal key phrase
Discover a strategy to embrace your goal key phrase to assist search engines like google and yahoo rank your web page. Ensure that it feels like a human wrote it. For instance, stuffing all of your goal key phrases right into a meta description like “Purchase Girls’s Footwear, Girls’s Tennis Footwear, and Girls’s Footwear on Sale right here!” will not be a great search for your model, as a result of it feels compelled and robotic.
As an alternative, naturally tie the key phrase into your description, just like the Shoe Carnival instance beneath:
Picture courtesy of: Google
You should definitely try the key phrases your rivals are concentrating on as effectively.
7. Keep away from meta description mills
There’s some debate about whether or not or to not use mills to jot down meta descriptions. Mills can produce descriptions that appear boring and lack persona. However they’ll work in case you’re a model with hundreds of SKUs and never sufficient sources to jot down them.
As a small enterprise, you’re higher off writing meta descriptions manually—particularly these for pages that get a whole lot of search site visitors. Melanie Bedwell, ecommerce supervisor at drink model Olipop, agrees.
“Meta descriptions must be one-of-a-hand. It’s simpler to make them distinctive in case you have somebody in your staff to jot down them,” she says. “The meta description is likely one of the greatest possibilities for somebody to click on in your search consequence. I consider it’s too vital to go away as much as an automatic generator.”
These automated instruments are an enormous motive why Google has began intervening and rewriting descriptions. The search engine is aiming to keep away from low-quality boilerplate content material that doesn’t fulfill search intent. You might argue it’s higher to haven’t any description than a poorly written routinely generated one.
Write your individual meta descriptions
Whether or not you’re a model new retailer proprietor or seasoned ecommerce webmaster, compelling meta descriptions are vital to improve web site site visitors, present good consumer expertise, and enhance conversion charges. By checking the bins above, you’ll be heading in the right direction to optimizing your pages for the online and can quickly see the advantages of extra site visitors and better gross sales.
Meta description FAQ
What ought to I write in a meta description?
A meta description ought to embrace a compelling abstract of the web page somebody is about to click on on. It ought to clearly inform them what they’ll acquire by clicking by means of. Meta descriptions ought to embrace a goal key phrase to assist search engines like google and yahoo index and rank the web page.
Are meta descriptions vital for search engine optimization?
Sure. A meta description tag is efficacious for each search engines like google and yahoo and net browsers. They assist browsers perceive what your web page is about and in case your web page will reply their question. A singular meta description can improve clicks and visibility in search.
What are the perfect meta description practices?
- Think about a browser’s mindset
- Make it distinctive
- Hold it at optimum size
- Make it actionable
- Add a name to motion
- Use your goal key phrase
- Keep away from meta description mills