I'm hoping somone can help me get my head around Meta Descriptions. I'm aware that they don't hold as much importance for ranking as they used to but I beleive they are important in gaining clicks as this is often what the customer will see when they do a search. This is for an ecommerce website. Is it better to just describe the product on the page such as: "100 Micron Safety and Security Window Film offers glass protection for homes and offices" Or would soemthing like this be better "Buy 100 Micron Safety and Security Window Film today with fast, affordable worldwide shipping or UK installation service and protect your home or office glazing" Any advice and reasoning behind it would be gladly appreciated.
Well, it depends on what's on the page. Let me explain: if the text on your page says; "Buy 100 Micron Safety and Security Window Film today with fast, affordable worldwide shipping or UK installation service and protect your home or office glazing" then that's probably what will appear on Google on the summary of the listings so your Meta description should be the shorter one. If, on the other hand, all it says on your page is; "Security Window, 100 Microns" - y'know, like a product header and that's all - then you would be better with the longer one as that's what may appear in the summary for the SE listings. Get what I mean?
Yes I think I do, well the header will be Clear Security Window Film so I would then be better with the longer one showing that we install and also you can buy online, I wasnt sure whether this would be frowned upon or seem in some way spammy
Don't forget it is supposed to reflect the page content. It's supposed to be that in the absence of page content the meta description is used to assist the SE's.
I'd go for second one. You want people to click if they are searching to buy, not missleading hits. So, just create desriptions that describe what on that page really is. And use keywords in it, in order to avoid google to put something from that page. Meta Description have nothing with rankings but only with CTR
One thing worth remembering is that Google will not always show your meta description even if you have one. This has been stated by Matt Cutts on video before. Even still, for me the best approach is to answer the questions your users may have. Whenever someone wants to buy something, they will always have some kind of objection or resistance. Something that is worrying them. i.e. How long will I have to wait for delivery, does it come with a gaurantee, can I return it if it is not the right one, etc etc. If you can answer these questions, this will help with conversion. Out of the two you listed. I would go for the second one.
Think of your meta description as a sales pick as this is what will show up in the Google results. Be sure to include a keyword or two!
The description needs to be short, snappy, (preferably under 50 characters), and still describe the page contents. So the first one.
The description is best if it entices the user into clicking. The description is more for page traffic than for keywords. I would suggest having for eCommerce, describe your product as much as possible. "Toshiba Laptop contains over 5 gigs of ram, with integrated video" ..Like that.
I suppose with my niche (window film) if someones seraching for safety window film or solar window film why already know what it is so would it be better to use the meta description on these to say things like "buy online" "fast deliver" and "we can install it" rather than describing what it does? anyone have any views on this?
50 characters is much too short and therefore likely to not be shown. Between 120- 160 characters is ideal Put the keyword in the description - for 2 reasons - firstly it will get bolded and draw the eye. Secondly, if it doesn't have the search term Google is likely to draw a snippet from the page content that does.
Before you optimize your meta descriptions, you need to first understand how Google chooses the search snippet. They do not always use your meta description as their snippet at Google. You need to optimize the meta description so that it shows most often and when it does show, so that it entices users to click on your SERP entry. NEVER misrepresent what the user will find if they click on your URL. Even if your page's goal is to sell something, "Buy my great widget" type meta desriptions are not always the best. Going at it from an angle of providing information might lead to more sales like using "Learn about the top 10 features of <insert widget name>. Find out yada yada yada." But you DO want to include a call to action. The key to optimizing your meta description is to first optimize the title element and other page elements. If your page is correctly optmiized then MOST of the time your page should be found using the keyword phrase(s) in the page's <title> element (or a slight variation of those keyword phrases). If your page is properly optimized then simply including every keyword from your <title> somewhere in the meta description will typically ensure that meta desription is displayed as the snippet at Google. Avoid using short meta descriptions. I try to make mine at least 100 characters long... and no more than 145-150 characters in length. Any more than that and Google will truncate UNLESS you are targeting keyword phrases that are more than 3 words in length. Google will often show many more characters (200, 300, even 400 characters) if the search phrase is 3+ keywords in length. I still, however, recommend to clients that they keep meta descriptions for long tail keyword phrases to the 150 character limit.
Although google claims they don't use meta descriptions, i have seen some of my sites rank for terms, in low competition niches, where the only way google would now that was what my site was about was in the meta description. So I think they maybe exaggerating the truth a little. And other search engines still rely on them for site info.
Hello! IMHO, I would go for the 2nd one. First, you have the call to act for the word buy which does well for the surfers and 2nd, you have your main keywords which should probably be "Buy 100 Micron Safety" and "Security Window Film" at the beginning of your description giving more points for it. :0)
No, it's a tool for you to use if you want to describe your site in the SERPS's, and doesn't impact google's SEO analysis of your site.
Try between 20-25 words. 25 words is my maximum and sometimes when I see Google showing it i notice it doesn't fit a couple of the last words. It depends I feel like it's taking random stabs in the dark but you get ther ein the end.