![]() ![]() The user should be made aware of what the page is about and encouraged to click. Similar to a tweet, all important information regarding the targeted page has to fit in this limited space. If the description is longer, it is abbreviated or replaced by “…”. Please note that this specification of character limit is just an approximation, because Google and other search engines don’t measure the actual characters, but instead the pixel length of the meta tag. META DESCRIPTION FULLHowever, because Google does not exploit the full space on each search results page, it is still advisable to keep to 150 characters including spaces, so that the end of the description won’t be cut off. Since this change, the possible length of a meta description has become about 175 characters. ![]() In early 2016, Google abandoned the ad unit on the right side of the search results, so there is theoretically now more room to display the snippets of organic results. What does the perfect meta description look like?įor a long time, the optimal length for the description’s text was about 150 characters including spaces. Since the CTR is obviously used by Google to assess the relevance of a webpage to the SERP, one could therefore regard the meta description as an indirect ranking factor. It can have a decisive influence on click-through rate and traffic. The meta description is the first figurehead a web page can present for organic search results. ![]() A well-written, compelling or provoking site description can stand out and motivate the user to click on a page, even if the page is not listed amongst the top few Google positions. Therefore, the content of the meta description shouldn’t be created arbitrarily or thoughtlessly. As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. It’s the first thing the user sees, next to the page title and target URL, when entering a keyword in the web search. ![]() So does the meta description still fulfill a purpose for SEO?Īlthough today’s SERPs are frequently enhanced through rich snippets, the meta description, as the first glimpse for potential users, hasn’t lost its meaning. If, today, a person or company calling themselves a “search engine optimizer” still offers the optimization of meta descriptions amongst their services, and treats this as an important ranking criteria, they are simply wrong and charging for something that fails to add quality. Basically, pages were overloaded with keywords and were turning into spam, which may have pleased search engines, but were not much use for actual human searchers. Because of the massive use of keywords during the early years of SEO, designed to manipulate search engines, the value for users dropped more and more. In the year 2009, relatively late, Google stated that meta keywords and meta descriptions no longer had a decisive impact for its ranking algorithms. See also our glossary entry on Keyword Stuffing. It could be “stuffed” with relevant keywords, as could meta titles or the content itself. One of the most important elements for page optimization was the meta description. In the early years of web search, at the start of the millennium, a website’s meta tags were mainly used to help determine the page’s ranking in the search results. The criteria used by search engines to rank a website are becoming increasingly differentiated and complex. Throwback to when meta phrases with keywords were still relevant to page rankings If executed well, a high-quality meta description can increase traffic and CTR (click-through rate), because a relevant snippet will encourage the user to click on the search result. Today, the quality and relevance of the description’s content play a much more important role in optimization of the snippet. A long time ago, the inclusion of the keyword in a URL’s meta description was one of the SEO ranking factors. ![]()
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