One of the best things about creating websites for clients is bringing together all of the visual elements (photos, page design, written content) into a masterfully crafted website that our clients love and their customers find easy to navigate. Along with the visuals you see on the front end to create a successful website, there’s a lot of work that happens on the back end with keywords, meta descriptions, and SEO. 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and over the last 10 years, SEO has really become a driving force in the marketplace to help businesses be successful online. Meta descriptions, or the content you use to tell google and other search engines what your site and pages are about, have become an essential element of a website's overall strategy. 

In our work with clients over the last three years, and helping them revamp their websites, we’ve noticed a lot of sites are not adding meta descriptions to their web pages. It may not seem like adding a couple sentences of description for each page on your site, but I can tell you that it is costing you potential visits to your site. 

Today, we wanted to address some of the reasons to add meta descriptions to your pages:

1// They Help Users (and Google) Understand What the Page/Photo is About

Meta descriptions are the brief summary of a webpage or photo that appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). They give users an idea of what the page or photo is about before clicking on it. A well-written meta description can entice users to click through to the page or photo, increasing the chances of engagement.

2// They Influence Click-Through Rates

A well-crafted meta description can have a HUGE influence on click-through rate. Click through rate, simply means that after your site pulls up in the rankings, how many people are clicking on your link and visiting your site. (CTRs). Click through rate is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of an SEO strategy. A higher CTR means more traffic to the page, which translates to increased engagement and conversions. If your click through rate is low, 

3// They Improve Search Engine Rankings

While meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they can indirectly improve a page's or photo’s search engine ranking. When a user clicks on a page or photo, spends time on it, and engages with it, search engines like Google interpret this as a signal that the page or photo is relevant and useful. As a result, the page or photo may receive a boost in rankings. 

4// They Provide Context for Social Media Sharing

When a webpage or photo is shared on social media, the meta description is often used as the default description. A well-written meta description can provide context for the shared content, making it more likely to be shared and engaged with by others. This can also help it show up in photos tab in Google based on the search query

Simply put, meta descriptions are crucial pieces of information for your site to help google and the end user understand what they will find there. If you’ve never taken the time to dig into your site and create these, we highly encourage you to start. If you’re looking for assistance in creating these descriptions and really tailoring your site for SEO, reach out and let us know.