What is a meta description?
Meta descriptions are elements in the HTML code of websites. They provide a very brief explanation of the page content. The meta description is not directly visible to users. However, it is displayed by Google below the page title and URL in the snippets of the search results.
What does the meta description mean for SEO?
Meta tags are an integral part of SEO. They play an important role. After all, they provide a brief description of what the website provides information about in the search results. A well-designed meta description attracts users' attention and makes them click on the website. Meta descriptions are free advertising space, so to speak. Therefore, the short description should be chosen very carefully. The following points are important:
- briefly and concisely mention the most important points
- make it interesting and inviting
Years ago, the meta description with the most important keywords was a relevant ranking factor. Website operators naturally took advantage of this to get as high up as possible in the search results. Google then decided that these tags would no longer influence the ranking because the descriptions were only stuffed with keywords.
Nevertheless, nobody should do without optimizing the meta description. In online marketing, optimizing the page description is still relevant. A good meta description usually has a positive effect on the CTR of the website. Even with a lower ranking, the CTR is increased by a good short description. A good click-through rate ultimately means that the page is ranked better by Google. Indirectly, a good meta description has an effect on a higher ranking.
What does a meta description look like?
The meta tags, including the description, belong in the head area of the source code of a website. A meta description as code is structured as follows:
<head>
.
</head>
The explanation for this is also simple. The "Name" element tells the search engine that this is the meta description. "Content" indicates the exact wording of the short description.
