The term metadata means data about data. A meta description is when an HTML element shows a brief summary of a webpage. A page\u2019s meta description will be displayed as part of the search engine results and is considered a form of advertising copy. It appears underneath the website\u2019s clickable title tag and gives online searchers a quick glance at the content on a website before they decide to open it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Descriptions can be any length but Google tends to keep the summaries around 160 characters. Instead of focusing on the quantity of information try to focus on quality so your link\u2019s description drives more click-throughs to your website. The most effective descriptions keep the character count below 160, create distinct descriptions for each page, avoid duplicate meta descriptions on your website, and match search intent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind, that even if you think your description is perfect, Google may replace it. They do this by finding a sentence on your page that they think is more appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHow Does a Meta Description Help Your Website?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\nMeta descriptions for websites are very important because they contain summaries of the page\u2019s contents, including keywords associated with the content. Metadata can improve a page\u2019s click-through rate (CTR) which can help better a page\u2019s rank. Using metadata in this way allows you to advertise the content to whoever is searching so they can decide if your webpage contains what they need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other Metadata Elements Include: <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n- Title tags – Tells search engines which title you would like displayed on the SERP. Important because it\u2019s what draws people in for a possible click-through to your page. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Robot meta tags – Provides instructions to the search engine if you would like them to crawl or index your website.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Viewport meta tags – Viewport is what a website user can see on a webpage. The viewport meta tag instructs the browser on how to display the webpage on different screen sizes. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Best Practices as Recognized by Google<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\nSome pages fill the meta keyword tag with a list of target keywords in an attempt to get more traffic to their website. Google no longer uses meta keywords to determine ranking because the meta tags were overused and drowned out websites that were actually relevant. It is recommended to remove meta keyword tags from your web pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Title tags – Tells search engines which title you would like displayed on the SERP. Important because it\u2019s what draws people in for a possible click-through to your page. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Robot meta tags – Provides instructions to the search engine if you would like them to crawl or index your website.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Viewport meta tags – Viewport is what a website user can see on a webpage. The viewport meta tag instructs the browser on how to display the webpage on different screen sizes. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Best Practices as Recognized by Google<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Some pages fill the meta keyword tag with a list of target keywords in an attempt to get more traffic to their website. Google no longer uses meta keywords to determine ranking because the meta tags were overused and drowned out websites that were actually relevant. It is recommended to remove meta keyword tags from your web pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Viewport meta tags – Viewport is what a website user can see on a webpage. The viewport meta tag instructs the browser on how to display the webpage on different screen sizes. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Robot meta tags – Provides instructions to the search engine if you would like them to crawl or index your website.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n