Best use of page Meta Description?

[Zono]

What is the recommended word count for page meta description? eg if adding a rental property on my site, do I put a very short summary like 2 bed for rent in Baker Street W1 or a more detailed description with one to two sentences with my business name added to the text?

 

[StephenSumner]

As with Page Titles, it is actually better to write and measure these in Pixel width as this is a bit more accurate as words and characters vary in size.

Roughly 300 characters max and you should be good!

 

[fisicx]

What is the recommended word count for page meta description? eg if adding a rental property on my site, do I put a very short summary like 2 bed for rent in Baker Street W1 or a more detailed description with one to two sentences with my business name added to the text?

Treat it like a bit of marketing blurb. You want people to click you link so it should sell the property. no need to add your business name - it the property someone wants not you.

 

[Joe Robinson]

I mostly agree with what the others said, although I'd recommend more like 135 - 160 characters as this is what Google is showing in most search results right now.

As fisicx said, it's a short marketing blurb, so try to entice people to click - focus on how the page will benefit the user if they click through, rather than just a bland description.

 

[Paul Murray]

Maybe leave it blank and let the engine pick a description to show based on the search term?

 

[lazypbx]

The meta description is what will appear in search results. You should include a compelling, relevant description which includes the most used relevant search keywords. You should be aware of keyword competition, if you're in a competitive area (like apartment rentals) you've only got a hope it appearing for long tail searches.

 

[lazypbx]

Forgot to mention that you can see how the meta description will be displayed on google search results if you prefix link with 'info' in the google search bar (or the main address bar on your browser if google is your default).

 

[Zono]

Forgot to mention that you can see how the meta description will be displayed on google search results if you prefix link with 'info' in the google search bar (or the main address bar on your browser if google is your default).

Like this?

'info'https://www.example.com/abc ?????

 

[fisicx]

Yes. Just like that

 

[Zono]

mine didn't come up !!!

 

[Zono]

it shows up but not the way it was written ! also some keywords show as missing even though they are in the meta description !!! Also, it doesn't link to the page but only to the homepage.

 

[fisicx]

That's google for you. I can get different descriptions to display depending on the search. And the keywords don't matter - Google doesn't use the description as a ranking signal, you should use it for marketing - which often means different words to those in the title.

 

[Tin]

Use it to make readers 'want to' click on your ranking irrespective of where you rank. If people find you in their face then write your description to tempt them into your site, remember it's your 1st sales pitch to a new customer. Your 2nd pitch should be in their face when they land on your page.

 

[Inva]

As fisicx said, this is not used for ranking so there's no point in filling it with keywords. Doing so may even be counter productive. Just put a description of what is in the page. If possible put different descriptions on every page.

 

[Alan]

I would view it same as you would if you were composing an adwords advert. A sort of compelling snippet that entices the viewer to find out more or verifies what they were searching for.

 

[lazypbx]

Like this?

'info'https://www.example.com/abc ?????

No, with info followed by a colon info:http.... (I had put an example but in was moderated)

so there's no point in filling it with keywords.

You should use your primary keywords in the description because it's likely that the document was found using those keywords for the search. Therefore the searcher quickly sees the document is applicable and is more likely to click.

 

[Zono]

I wonder why the result on google linked only to the homepage and not the page itself?

 

[Zono]

No, with info followed by a colon info:http.... (I had put an example but in was moderated)

Tried this and result was a blank google page !!!

You should use your primary keywords in the description because it's likely that the document was found using those keywords for the search. Therefore the searcher quickly sees the document is applicable and is more likely to click.

 

[Zono]

Tried this but only got a blank page on google. tried other similar sites and got a meta describtion! maybe something wrong with my site ?!?!

 

[lazypbx]

Tried this but only got a blank page on google. tried other similar sites and got a meta describtion! maybe something wrong with my site ?!?!

The page must be indexed by google, sounds like the page is not indexed yet. You can check indexing and submit site maps (recommended) on search console - https://search.google.com/search-console/about

 

[Zono]

The page must be indexed by google, sounds like the page is not indexed yet. You can check indexing and submit site maps (recommended) on search console - https://search.google.com/search-console/about

have submitted a sitemap. on the search console, it shows up as only 10 discovered! !

 

[lazypbx]

Perhaps you have a problem with the sitemap format. Search console should 'discover' ALL the url's you included in the sitemap then report on what's been indexed, omitted etc... verify your sitemap is ok.

 

[fisicx]

have submitted a sitemap. on the search console, it shows up as only 10 discovered! !

Which suggests a problem with site.

Everyone is guessing here as we don’t know what site you are struggling with.

 

[Zono]

Which suggests a problem with site.

Everyone is guessing here as we don’t know what site you are struggling with.

There seems to be an issue with my sitemap as it has not indexed all of my pages with google but only 10 pages.

 

[Inva]

If your inner links are not undiscoverable or very deep, that should be enough to index your entire site. I would not worry about it.

 

[EmployMe]

About 140 symbols. I have noticed recently that Google takes the part of meta description that is considered as the most precise, no matter how long the description is itself. So we started to write descriptions like we write content for people, our positions are higher now.

 

[Cash Cow]

Using a tool like Yoast will guide you through all the various meta-datas you can add to a page.

 

[Zono]

Using a tool like Yoast will guide you through all the various meta-datas you can add to a page.

Is Yoast a wordpress plugin only? My site is not WP.

 

[Lee Oakley]

Is Yoast a wordpress plugin only? My site is not WP.

Its mainly for WordPress although they have collaborated with others to produce
Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3.

There seems to be an issue with my sitemap as it has not indexed all of my pages with google but only 10 pages.

How did you get on with your sitemap? Did you have any 'no index' attributes for those missing urls?

 

[fisicx]

Using a tool like Yoast will guide you through all the various meta-datas you can add to a page.

Why would you want to do this? In any case, Yoast isn't best SEO plugin. If you have a busy site it can slow things down. Popular =/= Good

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

I recommend use the 'AdWord rule'.
Yes, it like ad in SERP. A little bit detailed info about page.
Please bear in the mind Google can use your description or can create own (from the content of the page)

 

[hikebranding]

Try to add those words which help your webpages to get clicks in SERP. The description should be between 150-160 characters because Google will not show more than that in the SERP.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

>150-160 characters

I prefer to use pixels. Because if you use w,m you will use more pixels. For example the name of our Magento team is MageWorkshop. So it is more widely than just 12 characters.

 

[fisicx]

I prefer to use pixels.

That makes no sense at all. The meta description is a text object. Pixels apply to images not words.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

That makes no sense at all. The meta description is a text object. Pixels apply to images not words.

Google now calculates page Titles and Meta descriptions in pixels rather than by character count, making a big impact on the visible text in a Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).
Why is it important?

Google's meta description length is up to 920 pixels, which might allow for up to 158 characters.
On mobile devices, the max limit is about 680 pixels and 120 characters.

So if you use w and m, you will use less characters than 158 or 120. Because these characters wider than i or t.

 

[fisicx]

What Google displays and what Google indexes are two different things.

 

[UKSBD]

That makes no sense at all. The meta description is a text object. Pixels apply to images not words.

A fixed width div, fixed font size, overflow:hidden; text-overflow:ellipsis

 

[Tin]

^^^ Precisely what he said above

 

[Tin]

So if you use w and m, you will use less characters than 158 or 120. Because these characters wider than i or t.

and that's why meta descriptions are not fixed to any particular number of characters. Google's serp results content is limited by the number of pixels that they make available for each entry.

 

[fisicx]

So are you saying I should limit the size of my titles and descriptions by the number of pixels?

I’m looking at one of my listing at the #1 spot and see two full lines for the title and three for the description.