What is a meta description and how do you create one?

The meta description is a short text that appears below the headline and the link to the website in search engine results. Its main task is to arouse the interest of the internet user and entice him/her to visit a given website. How and why should you create a meta description to help position your blog or online shop well?

Meta description - what is it?

A meta description or simply meta description is an HTML tag in the form of a short text. Such a tag should contain information about the content of a specific web page. These data will benefit not only internet users, but also search engine algorithms. It is their job to retrieve and analyse the content of each website. Google's, Bing's or Yahoo!'s systems do this in order to better match the organic results to users' intentions and queries. The meta description should therefore describe well what can be found on a site.

Meta description - where is it located?

Meta descriptions ultimately appear directly on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), the page that lists addresses found via a search engine. In simpler terms, these are the search results in response to a user's query. From the point of view of an ordinary internet user, the meta description appears just below the title of the website and its URL.

However, on the IT side, meta tags are found in several other places. To find out what description the selected domain has, you can access its source code. To do this, simply press the right mouse button and select "View page source" from the highlighted bar. The code can also be accessed using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + U.

Once this has been done, a second tab will open in the browser where the source codes of the site will be presented. The meta description will be located under the following HTML code: <meta name="description" content="Content meta description" />. To make it easier to find the desired piece of text, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F. You can search for the word "description" and easily find the description in the code.

Tools or plug-ins can also help to check the description. The meta description of a specific page can be easily seen, e.g. with a module such as SEOquake. On the other hand, advanced programmes such as Ahrefs will make it possible to scan all pages of a selected website for meta descriptions.

Meta description in an online shop and other ways to attract customers

You already know what a page's meta description is and where such text goes. But do you realise what benefits a good HTML tag can give you? If you run a profitable blog or your own online shop, the meta description is an element that makes your offer stand out from the search engine.

A catchy text under the name and address of the page is able to attract the attention of the Internet user. And gaining the attention of a potential customer is already half the battle. Why is this so important? It is because a user is likely to find many competing offers after searching for a desired keyword. In this case, it is the meta description that can determine which one they will click on.

Meta description - importance and impact on SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO for short) is the optimisation of websites for search engines. Among other things, it involves editing the source code in a way that is required and rewarded by, for example, Google. Good SEO improves the positioning of a website in the organic results and is therefore very important if you want to be present on the web.

Search engines take many different factors into account when ranking pages, but the meta description is officially not one of them. Google representatives reported as early as 2007 that descriptions alone have no direct impact on positioning.

Nevertheless, site owners have always been encouraged to create unique meta descriptions that are appropriately tailored to the web content. This is all because such a practice can indirectly affect the position in search engine results.

If a page has an attractive meta description, more users enter it. This therefore increases the CTR (click-through rate). This is a click-through rate that is evaluated by Google robots. This means that it has a real impact on the page's position in the SERPs.

When is it worth creating the meta description yourself?

Leaving a page without a description causes the search engine to create the text that is displayed below the site's title and address on its own. Google's robots are not creative when doing this - they simply pull the first lines of text they find on a given page. For this reason, an automatically generated meta description may be unattractive and unconvincing to follow the displayed link. This is why it is always a good idea to create a meta description yourself or with the help of SEO specialists.

However, there are cases where this need is even essential. First and foremost, the homepage should have a unique description, as it is the business card and the most important part of the website. The meta description of the entire site will be visible both in the SERP results and, for example, on social media when a link to the page is shared.

A self-created meta description is also useful for sub-pages with little text. When a search engine has little content to generate a description, it is likely to be no good. In such situations, it is particularly worthwhile to cut out the robots and create a message yourself that brings the content of the subpage closer to internet users.

Where else is it best to place your own meta description? Certainly in the code of service and offer pages, as well as product categories. These are what your online shop earns money on, so they should appear well in the search results. A unique, interesting and eye-catching description can make the difference between an internet user choosing you over your competitors.

There is another case where it is particularly worth investing your time and creativity in creating a good meta description. We are talking about pages ranking high in Google search. Internet users usually only look at the TOP 10 results because they are on the first page. Hardly anyone looks at the second, third or even further down the page. Therefore, if your website is already among the top-positioned results, then by adding a good description you can improve its CTR, increase traffic and get even better sales results.

Meta description length - how many characters should the page description have?

In theory, the length of the meta description is not limited. Site owners can even write a whole elaboration on their site, but this doesn't really make much sense. This is all because the search engine only displays a small piece of text under the URL. Therefore, if the description is too long, it will be cut off and the internet user will not see it.

So what length should the meta description be in order to be displayed in full? It is assumed that it should be about 155 characters, i.e. roughly two lines of text. However, this form of measurement is not always precise.

Each character has a different shape and therefore takes up more or less space. This is why many people give up counting letters and measure the length of the meta description in pixels. In this case, it is assumed that the description should not exceed 980 px (for desktops) or 680 px (for mobile devices).

In what situations does Google not display the set meta description?

There are cases in which Google does not display a self-set page description. This usually happens when the search engine does not recognise the text as relevant to the content on the site.

If one focuses only on making an SEO meta description, it can easily get lost in keyword stuffing - an overabundance of key phrases. This practice makes the description unreadable and often even loses its meaning. Google limits the occurrence of this type of text because it wants, above all, to be user-friendly.

When the meta description is not useful to internet users, i.e. contains repetitive words, does not answer the question asked or has no links to the information on the page, Google may generate its own description. The same situation also often occurs when the HTML tag takes the same form on every subpage of the website.

Meta description - how to set up and add to a page?

The meta description can be set directly from the HTML code. To do this, simply insert the prepared text into the tags of the <head> section. If your website runs on a CMS (web content management software), it is easy to change the meta tags. How else do I set up the meta description? In tools such as WordPress, the meta description is placed quickly and without too much trouble. By the way, you can even see a preview of it in the search list, which makes it easier to adjust the length of the text.

How to write a meta description?

Several elements must not be missing from the meta description in order to generate displays. These include keywords and power words, i.e. words with persuasive power. These are usually positive adjectives such as free, attractive or latest. However, descriptions can also appeal to emotions such as desire, curiosity or a sense of security.

In addition, it is worth including a call to action (CTA) in the meta description. InPost makes clever use of all these procedures, as can be seen, for example, in the description of its offer to companies. It reads as follows: grow your e-commerce business faster and respond better to your customers' needs. InPost Subscriptions are a price guarantee, the fastest delivery and one contract.

The courier company succinctly but powerfully highlights all the key strengths of its offering. Additionally, it uses an inviting CTA that suggests that its services will improve the running of someone's business.