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SEO Description is basically Meta description. Meta descriptions is the short about 160-character summary of the content of a web page usually below the page title in search. Meta Descriptions has been a fundamental aspect of On Page SEO guidance, and will continue to do so in 2021 and near future. Only aspect that has changed is SEO description is no longer a direct search ranking factor, although has an indirect influence.
How Meta Description Benefits?
Well written meta description can gain more clicks improving CTR (Click through rate) which over time can increase the page ranking. Secondly when a page is shown, sometimes Google selects its own snippet of text from the content of the page totally neglecting the 160-character description generated by you. This is done to fit in search for long tail keyword phrases, with aim of achieving higher relevancy, succeeding mostly but sometimes fails to do so. In that case you could ask Google to not include their meta description and force to focus on your custom description. This is just with Google, other search engines do show the description drafted by you, so it is still worthy to draft a meta description with long tail keyword phrases for every page. What should be included in an SEO description?
Now that we are convinced with SEO description being an essential part of SEO guide let us indulge in ways to write and optimize perfect SEO descriptions.
Character Limit of Meta Description
Always remember the character limit of 160, pixel size under 1000 px and to add the target keyword. Anything beyond the said limit can be truncated, although the limit varies with devices but generally stick to this. Also, Google bold highlights the search keywords making the width of the description broader. But then if you want to deliberately truncate the description to raise curiosity, that is a totally new welcoming strategy.
The curiosity concept makes the user click to read the cut-off description, thereby increasing CTR. Further, there are some enticing description writing methods like start with an existing query followed by a solution or including CTA in the description or some bonus/offers/discounts to engage users. Or else one could also use adaptive description which means to update description over a period of time, add a social proof or recognition received by content, seasonal offerings, and so on.
Lastly, keep an eye on a higher-ranking competitor description strategy from time to time. How much weight does it carry for Google or the user experience? SEO description, a part of meta tags thereby a part of HTML tags describes your page content to both google and other engines and the website user.
Importance of SEO Description
SEO description is the first point of contact, the first impression of your content for all the search engines. A key aspect for all search engines as it explains to them what the page is all about, giving it a reasonably good weightage and attention. Further for users or visitors, description affects the way they see your site, find it clickable or not. So along with rich content and user experience, meta descriptions also need to be distinct, customized and engaging. What other factors are more relevant for SEO in 2021? SEO is one the most evolving organic digital marketing strategies with the constant end result to put oneself in the user’s shoes and provide truly valuable, trustworthy, authoritative expert content. This makes it necessary to be updated regularly and stay ahead of the competition as most users exclusively focus on organic searches.
To start with, a lot of buzz is created around Voice Search Technology amidst innovations with Siri, Alexa, Cortana voice assist tech, resulting in optimization of keywords.
The key will be to identify longer, natural-sounding phrases people use via communications to rank higher in search results.
Core Web Vitals
Google in May 2020 came up with 3 Core Web vitals to define UX – loading, interactivity and visual stability all of which point towards Page Speed, making it a crucial SEO metric to keep a track on. Because when two pages are equal in relevancy, websites better complying these vitals will take the game.
In terms of Page experience, mobile-friendliness, Image, and Video optimization are also eminent for most searches today on smartphones with the expectation of quick rendering, fast stabilization and visual solutions. Use of high-quality images, apt keywords for videos with mobile-first indexing is what you should be focusing on.
Predictive searches, intent-based searches, long content searches, semantic keyword searches have been the talk with the advent of google’s RankBrain, BERT and other algorithms. Use of Machine learning, AI, natural processing to focus on user intent, and modifying the keywords using semantics is the tactic and strategy to follow up on.
Your post-acquisition content must provide detailed answers, concerns and needs the user is looking for and you need to show the right terms for it. In nutshell, it is holistically optimizing your brand’s entire digital presence right from On page SEO, long in depth content strategy, social media influencer assists and so on.
So access all SEO tactics well, adopt them quickly and execute them brilliantly.
