What is description? How to write meta description?
One of the things that attract users’ attention in the results obtained from their search in Google to click on the site is the short description that is displayed under the link of the results in one to two lines. This text is called Meta Description in SEO. In this article, we will tell you what is meta description and what is its use? How to write meta description?
The audience of this article is divided into two categories:
- A group of people who are not familiar with the concept of Description and do not know what its use is.
- People who work as SEO (SEO specialist) and are looking for a way to prevent Google from rewriting the description.
What is description?
Description is an abstract text of the desired page. This text snippet is a complete description of the content of the page that usually appears below the blue clickable links on the search engine results page (SERP).
Why is description important?
Meta descriptions contain additional information about page details that will make users more inclined to click through to a site. For the same reason, it is considered an indirect factor to increase the ranking and to increase the click rate in search engine results. SEO experts emphasize the uniqueness and comprehensiveness of Meta Descriptions.
Why does Google sometimes rewrite the description?
This is the question that John Mueller, a senior member of the Google team, answers. Referring to the fact that Google does not always use the default descriptions of sites, John Mueller explained the reasons for this as follows:
1- Using inappropriate and weak explanations
If the description is aimed at gaining users’ trust and does not provide much information about the overall page, there is a possibility that Google will change it. For example, using multiple keywords in the description will increase the possibility of conversion. But the most important reason for changing the description from Google’s point of view is that the description is not useful for users.
2- The same meta description on different pages
If the meta descriptions of different pages on the site are the same, Google will automatically choose the descriptions to display in the results.
John Muller confirms this article and points out that:
“Google rewrites the meta description according to the content of the page and will change it if the description section is not relevant and interesting enough.”
3- Meta description does not match with the searched term
If the keyword searched by the user is not included in the description, its text may be changed by Google. For example, we searched two keywords Iranhost and Iranhost in Google.
In the Farsi keyword that is clear in the image, the description is displayed according to the default settings.
But in the English keyword Iranhost, Google has changed the description text to be closer to the keyword searched by the user.
Note : If the searched term matches a part of the content of the page, it is possible to replace that text with the description.
How to write basic meta descriptions
In the following, we will mention some of the most important features that a meta description should include and how to write meta descriptions .
Use a maximum of 170 characters in the description
There is no specific standard in the number of characters, but Google’s suggestion for the number of characters used in the meta description is between a minimum of 155 and a maximum of 170 characters. This number will vary depending on the type of message you want to convey.
The number of characters mentioned may be different in different languages depending on the size of the letters. For example, if a lot of K and G letters are used in the Persian language, the number of characters shown in the meta description may be less.
Meta descriptions in WordPress should be written in plugins such as yoast and rankmath. These plugins show you the limit of writing meta description.
