SEO copywriting: Searchwritten

You’ve probably heard it before: writing meta-descriptions is an integral part of search engine optimization. My take on it is that the meta-description provides an important – and FREE – possibility for you to advertise your website in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc.

This article provides a thorough explanation of what metadescriptions are, why and when you should use them and how to write them. My focus here is to explain it as clearly as possible while still being deep enough to actually learn something.

This guide is the second part of a series about ’seo copywriting for dummies’. The first article was about the title-tag. You may wanna check that one too ;)

What is a meta-description?

They are usually defined in two ways:

1. The short text in your HTML sourcecode, the one that says: <meta name=”description” content=”the text of the metadescription” />
2. Sometimes, people also think it is the text snippet that search engines like Google show below the links in the SERPs.

People refer to both when they talk about ‘meta-descriptions’, but no. #1 is the true description. No. #2 is called a ’snippet’.

Why use meta-descriptions?

Descriptions are important for users, search engines, and webmasters. Google for example, uses it to improve both user experience and analytics of their search engine:

‘[the meta description] directs them to good results faster and reduces the click-and-backtrack behavior that frustrates visitors and inflates web traffic metrics.’ [link].

A search engine user scans descriptions to find what he or she is looking for and a webmaster uses it to show them what a page is about. That is why a well-written and relevant meta-description helps increasing the percentage of clicks your website gets.

How to write: 5 basic rules

Here is a quick list:

1. < 150 characters;
2. aim for CTR improvement, NOT for ranking;
3. include keywords;
4. different queries, different descriptions;
5. it’s not necessary to create descriptions for EVERY page of your site;

Rule 1: < 150 characters
A description is short, concise by nature. The major search engines display no more than 150 characters, including spaces. If a description is longer, they cut it. I’m not saying this means that your descriptions should always be exactly 150 characters long. Sometimes it’s better to be short:

It really depends on the type of search queries people use. When we look at the example of Apple: people that see this are probably looking for the Apple homepage, and not for technical specs of the 3G implementions of the iPhone.

(p.s.: this image was an old screenshot. I cannot find this description for the Apple homepage now)

Rule 2: Aim for CTR improvement, NOT for ranking
Meta-descriptions will NOT help you gain better rankings. But that does not mean you should forget them.

On the contrary!

Think of it as an advertisement. If humans absolutely trusted the suggestions Google gives them, then why is that generally 50% of the people (based on AOL’s data dump of 2006) do NOT click the first result?

It’s because they make up their own minds. And that’s where good writing WILL help you! This also means that descriptions cannot be seen separate from the title-tag. They’re a combo, and dance very well together.

Rule 3: Include keywords
Even though descriptions have no effect for better rankings, they DO impact the way people interact with it.

That is why you should always include keywords. It’s what people are looking for and if your description contains the words people entered as search query, they will be bolded:

Update: I forgot to mention a very important and obvious reason why you should always include the most important keywords in a meta-description. Because it depends on the query someone entered into the search engine, it is by no means obvious to a search engine that the description you gave up in the meta name=”description” field actually provides the best snippet. So you should incorporate the most important keywords in your descriptions too… 

Rule 4: Different queries, different descriptions
People use different kinds of queries to find different kinds of information. The four most well-known types of queries are:

1. navigational: people are looking for a website about a subject, for example: ‘homepage Packard Bell computers‘;
2. informational: people look for non-commercial information, for instance ‘name actress a beautiful mind‘;
3. commercial investigation: a mix of commercial and informational queries, for instance ‘water management expert‘;
4. transactional: looking to buy stuff or a local company: ‘Indian restaurant Nijmegen‘;

It might pay off to determine which type of meta-descriptions are best suited for your website or even different parts of the website.

Here are some examples of description types. I thought of them myself, so if you have better examples, please let me know!

Navigational: ‘The homepage of Apple‘
Informational: ‘Film: A Beautiful Mind. Cast & crew: Jenniffer Connelly [Alicia], Piet Bambergen [Kees], Year: 2005, Rating: 7.5‘
Commercial Investigation: ‘Need a heating expert in Nijmegen? Piet & co. fix your heating problem fast, efficient, and cheap‘
Transactional: ‘Chicken Tikka for $4.99. Delivered within 30 minutes. Order Indian food online now!‘

Note that the navigational description is short and the more informational queries are longer.

Rule 5: Not every page needs a description
Search Engines like to pick the first good sentence they find in a bodytext and use that as a description.

A practical tip would be to take the first sentence of your copy and use a call-to-action in it instead of writing a separate meta-description. You can do the same for other parts of your text. Place a call-to-action next to your most important keywords in the text. They might end up being a description.

Conclusion

Meta descriptions are like advertisements in the organic search results. Treat them as such and understand how search algorithms and people view them. If you make the most of that knowledge, you can increase the click through rates of your listings.

A whole lot can be, and has been, said about meta-descriptions and their use for SEO purposes. This article is not unique in that it provides new insights. But I do think it helps explaining this basic SEO knowledge as clear as possible and still is advanced enough to really teach something.

Suggested reading

[link] Some nice tips from Google itself, specifically some nice alternative writing method tips.

[link]: a good introduction to why you want to write descriptions, and how different search engines dealt with it in 2004. A 2007 followup is written here.