On-page SEO: How to write meta descriptions to get a higher click-through rate?

Meta descriptions are one of the most important and compelling areas of SEO. If you want to optimize your website for search engines, it is very important to have a quality meta description that describes the content of your website. Before you start managing your website, find out what the meta description is, what the benefits are, and of course the most important thing is how to write meta descriptions correctly and to a high standard.

What is a meta description?

Meta descriptions are longer paragraphs of a few sentences that we see in Google searches. A page's meta description tag tells Google and other search engines about the content of the page. This summary is displayed by search engines when keywords are found in the description.

According to Robertas Šimkus, Head of SEO department at Bilger.lt agency, a good quality meta description is also important for another reason: it must interest and attract the reader so that he or she wants to find out more and click on your website.

Use up to 160 characters, because that's what Google allows for a meta description.

Most of the time, meta descriptions are very simple texts, but simplicity is one of the most difficult parts of the content creation task. Customers don't think about why they clicked on this or that website. For this reason, meta descriptions can be a real challenge to fit a complete, attractive and clear description into just a couple of sentences.

Meta descriptions consist of a meta title and a meta description.

Why do we need title and meta descriptions?

The "meta" and "title" descriptions of website pages tell search engines what information is on a particular page. Weather it is a service website or an e-shop, each individual page and product category must have a unique 'meta' and 'title' description. As many as 93% of people use an online search engine, so meta and title descriptions are very important. So many people use search engines on the Internet that more than 78,000 searches occur in 1 second by Google searches.

The more people click on your page, the more likely they are to read and share your page. The more likely they are to read and share your page, the better your ranking will be, according to the press release.

What to avoid when creating 'meta' and 'title' descriptions?

According to R. Šimkus, Head of SEO, you should not use a lot of different keywords when writing "meta" and "title" descriptions. It will be difficult for Google to understand how to properly position a search page.

"Don't write banal descriptions. Each 'meta' and 'title' page description should stand out from the competitors version and attract the attention of search engine users. The text should be as unique as possible, of the right length, easy to read, clear and informative," says R.Šimkus.

What magic words to use?

According to the SEO specialist, every consumer has seen lot of times words such as promotion, sale, discounts of up to 75%, etc. used in traditional advertising. Šimkus recommends that you use these words in the meta and title descriptions of your pages to get a higher click-through rate (CTR).

In the market, almost every keyword is accompanied by additional related keyword phrases, which are the magic words: price, prices, sale, promotions, sales, cheap, cheapest, good, perfect, best.

The SEO specialist suggests that you should remember that all the words indicating that your product is the cheapest and the best must be true to reality, otherwise consumer rights are violated. It is therefore advisable to use it in conjunction with the good old buzzword “probably”.

 "When optimising your main keyword, include the following words in the page title. These words can also be included in the 'meta' description. However, the Google search engine already places less value on the 'meta' description, as it is more for the user," says Šimkus.

Your meta description should contain relevant keywords to improve your website's ranking. The meta description should be interesting enough to make users want to click on the link to your page. As many as 43% of people click on a given result based on the meta description alone.

It is important not to make the mistake of putting completely different keywords in the same description. If you do decide to include keywords, then only use related ones.

For example: men's watches, men's watches price, etc.

To create more effective descriptions, use:

• Telephone number;
• Statistics;
• Magic advertising words: promotion, promotions, 45% off, good price, prices, sale;
• Brands (effective in e-shops, include the name of the most purchased product).

What should you pay attention to?

"Before you start writing descriptions for your chosen keyword, first of all review the Google page. What do the headlines on competitors' sites look like? Your meta and title descriptions need to stand out from the rest," advises Šimkus.

Meta descriptions should describe what you sell and why the customer should buy from you. It is important to re-emphasise the added value of your brand.

The SEO specialist suggests monitoring CTR - click-through rate - via the Google Search Console tool. You can see which keywords your website is appearing for in Google searches and the CTR of each page.

 "Strategically, you need to write the right meta data first, then if your website is in position 3, you will get more visitors than your competitor in position 2. Search engine visitors will simply choose the website that catches their attention," says SEO specialist R. Šimkus.