Do you want to learn how to write an effective blog description and why it is important in terms of SEO?
In this guide I will tell you how to write an effective blog description that will not only help you to increase your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) but also your ranking on search results.
This article will also run through some blog description examples to give you some ideas to incorporate in your blog.
There are six most important meta tags for SEO:
- Meta title
- Meta description
- Meta robots
- Meta refresh redirect
- Meta charset
- Meta viewport
In this article, we will focus on Blog (Meta) Description only.
The meta description tag in HTML is normally a 160 character snippet that is used to summarize your web page's content and looks like this in your source code.
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Learn why a blog description is important for a blog and how to write an effective blog description for your blog with some awesome blog description examples.">
</head>
Search engines displays these snippets in search results. It helps a visitor to know what a page is about before they click on it.
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What is a Blog Description?
In a blog description, you write a short summary about your blog.
By reading your blog description on search results presented by Google or Bing, searcher can have an idea what your blog is about, without even visiting your blog.
As mentioned above, we called it a meta description in the context of SEO.
According to YoastSEO, the meta description is a snippet of up to about 155 characters which summarizes your blog content.
As per Google, a meta description tag should generally inform interested users with a short, relevant summary of what a particular page is about. They are like a pitch that convince users that the page is exactly what they’re looking for.
Search Engine Land in its article, 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques, says…
“The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing.”
Google has also stated that meta descriptions aren't a ranking factor.
However, it does take into account the click-through-rate (CTR) for ranking. A webpage with higher CTR indicates that it is able to satisfy users intent well.
And a meta description plays an important role in driving higher CTR.
Thus a properly optimized meta description with your target keyword can result in higher ranking on search results.
When you use your keyword in the meta description, it appears in bold in the search results.
Thus, when someone searches for that particular keyword on a search engine, the keyword in bold will drive searchers attention due to which the webpage gets more clicks.
When your blog gets higher clicks on search results than other blogs that are currently ranking higher than you, it drives Google attention to the fact that people are more interested in your article than others.
As a result, Google may give your blog a ranking boost and move you up in the search results.
But once a user lands on your blog content, it must satisfy users intent.
If a user goes to your blog and doesn't find anything worthy to read, he will again return back to the search results to check other blog. This will cause negative affect on your rankings as well.
So, only writing effective blog description is not enough, your content should also be relevant and must satisfy users intent.
In this article we will mainly focus on two types of meta description –
- Blog Description: A description of your blog's homepage which appears below your website link in search results page.
- Post Description: A description of your blog post which appears below your blog post link in search results page.
Let's see some blog description examples in Google Search Result Page (GSRP) of some of the most popular blog.
Blog Description Examples
neilpatel.com
labnol.org
engadget.com
moz.com
shoutmeloud.com
From the above examples you can see that all these top blogs has a well written blog meta description which is short, compelling with important targeted keywords in it.
Writing a good meta description for a blog helps in increasing your blog visibility and most importantly traffic.
The main reason to write a blog description is to explain your users what your blog is about.
You can see that in all the above examples the meta description of the blog is attractive enough to force a user to click on the link.
You can take inspiration from these blog description examples and implement it on your blog.
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How To Add Blog Description With YoastSEO?
Meta description of a blog inform users about the brief summary of our blog and type of content they can expect from it.
SEO plugins like YoastSEO or RankMath can help you to quickly add blog description on your site. You can install the plugin right from your WordPress Dashboard. Go to Plugins >> Add New. Search for the plugin, install it and activate it.
If you're using Yoast SEO plugin then it can help you to easily add blog description for your blog.
Log in to your WordPress Dashboard and under Yoast SEO go to Search Appearance.
Under Search Appearance page, enter meta description of your blog.
Please remember your meta description should not exceed 160 characters. Meta description of my blog is given below.
How To Write a Blog Description?
Here are some important steps you must follow to write a perfect blog description for your blog:
Write in brief what your blog niche and type of content it produces.
Mention your brand name.
Add some power word or call-to-action words to your meta description which compels your users to click on your blog's homepage link.
If you are finding it difficult to write a blog description please refer to the blog description examples of some of the top blogs as explained above.
How to Write a Blog Post Description?
Please follow the below mentioned steps to write a perfect blog post description:
- Write in brief what your blog post is about and what user's problem it intends to solve.
- Add your important keyword in the description.
- Add some power word or call-to-action words to your blog post description which forces your users to click on your blog's post link to know more.
Blog Description Generator
There are many online blog post title generator, AI text generators and headline anaylzer tools that can help you to write an effective blog description.
For example, you can take the help of Jasper AI, an artificial intelligence based tool that can generate highly effective and unique blog description and blog post description. Read more about it here - Jasper review.
This tool allows you to do the following-
- Writes your meta description tag code as you type your description.
- Counts the character length.
- Forces you to write within the most SEO-friendly meta description length of 156 characters
- Lets you select the entire output code with one click inside the text-area.
If you want to learn more about this description generator tools, check out this article - Best Meta Description Generators. Here, I have listed all the important tools and their features to help you make an informed decision.
Tips for impressive, appealing and attractive blog post description.
To write an effective blog post description, log in to your WordPress Dashboard and go to Posts then select All Posts.
Under All Posts select the post which you want to add description for.
On the post page, scroll down at the end of the post.
If you are using YoastSEO then you will see an option to add meta description.
Keep your meta description short with your targeted keyword, power words and a call-to-action. Enter meta description of your post under 160 words.
While writing description follow the tips mentioned below to increase your click-through-rate (CTR)..
Start your post description with words like
- How to write...
- Learn how to make...
- Get free download...
- Which are the best...
- 11 Best software...
- Top 21 tools to...
Then add some power words like
- 30% increase in traffic...
- 20% increase in sales...
- after making the changes we found that...
Then end the description with Call To Action (CTA) like
- Download now!
- Click to know more!
- Learn more!
By following the above mentioned tips you can drive searchers attention to your post on search results and hopefully result in higher CTRs.
After adding a meta post description you would see that YoastSEO has created a snippet preview. This snippet preview is exactly how your post will look like in Google Search result page.
See the example of a snippet preview below.
Pro Tips:
- Write unique description for each page.
- Add main targeted keyword of your blog post in the meta description.
- Include power words and call to action.
- Clearly mention the problem you are intending to solve through your blog post.
- Keep the description length up to 160 characters.
- Avoid duplicate meta descriptions across multiple pages.
FAQ Related to Blog Description
1. What is a Blog Description?
It is a description of your blog's homepage that appears below your website link in search results page.
2. What is a Blog Post Description?
It is a description of your blog post that appears below your blog post link in search results page.
3. What should be the maximum length of the Meta Description?
The maximum length of the Meta Description should be within 160 characters.
4. What is considered a good Meta Description?
A Meta Description that is short, up to 160 characters, with targeted keywords and a powerful call to action is considered good.
Wrapping Up
One must give proper attention in writing a good blog description.
A good blog description helps you achieve:
- High CTR resulting in increase in traffic
- Boost in ranking as well if your content satisfies a users intent
While writing any blog post our main focus should be to write a very compelling meta description that search engines would love to show its users.
I hope that the above guide will help you in writing an effective meta description of your blog and blog post.
The blog description examples given in this article will also help you in framing your own blog description.
Note: If you're looking to create your own blog, get started with GreenGeeks web hosting at just $2.95 per month. You can also refer to our step by step guide on how to start a blog for tips on blogging niche, domain name, web host, and others.
Please comment below what strategies you are following for adding meta description for your blog and blog's post.
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Hello,
Nice article and very informative guide. How to write a master and Prefect blog description?
Very helpful thank You so Much for the informative guide.
Glad you liked it.
Really it’s a very useful blog description related content.
Hello!
Excellent stuff as usual, great post.
Meta titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it’s important to use high-quality titles on your web pages. Google explains it best: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624
In 2020, the meta description length is 920 pixels. This equates to 158 characters on average. Rather than cutting to characters, Google truncates long descriptions to the nearest whole word and adds an ellipsis.
If you want to see precisely how your blog post will look in Google’s search engine results, the free tool SERP simulator https://www.serpure.com or the WordPress Yoast https://yoast.com – is one you’ll want to bookmark.
Cheers
Glad you liked the article. Yeah, Meta titles and descriptions are super important to improve click-through-rate. High CTR may also result in higher rankings on the search results.
Are you the owner of Serpure?
Hello Deepak
Yes, I am the owner of Serpure. I am very interested in SEO. I often have to write meta-title and meta-descriptions and I use this tool. It helps me.
I would be very grateful if you could tell about this tool in your blog post. I think people will be useful
Thanks for your nice article.
Awesome tips Mamta. Never thought about it so seriously. Thanks to bring this article.
Thanks Rajib