6 Surefire Ways to Optimize Meta Descriptions for More Clicks

In their SEO endeavors, people, at times, focus more on the content of their blog posts and catchy headlines and ignore the meta descriptions. This could prove costly for the clicks that they aspire to ensure.

The reason why meta descriptions matter so much is because searchers will glance at your meta descriptions and make a decision to click or not click based on what your meta descriptions contain.

Wouldn’t it be smart to optimize meta descriptions then? Yes, of course!

But the billion dollar question is how? No worries.

Here’re 6 surefire ways to optimize meta descriptions to drive more clicks:

#1. Provide Answers

Want your meta descriptions to be compelling?

Simple. Answer the questions that searchers are asking on Google.

Quite straightforward, right?

As long as your meta descriptions answer the questions, they can entice searchers to click. It means the click-through-rate can actually improve if you focus on answering questions.

In other words, your meta descriptions should be focused, specific and relevant for the searchers. If your meta descriptions are vague, the searchers are likely to click on the next site which contains a better meta description.

So focus on the search intent, study what the searchers are looking for and how your site provides answers to the same. Once you ensure that meta descriptions provide appropriate and succinct answers to these questions, you have optimized meta descriptions in a way that will accelerate the clicks!

#2. Drive Emotions

At times, purchase behavior is driven more by emotions than by rational assessment! Consumers may seem to be shopping for shoes or handbags but they are, deep down, looking for fulfillment, confirmation, reassurance etc. If you could evoke the right emotions in them, you can drive purchase behavior, or at least make them click on your site.

How to evoke these emotions?

Well, you should craft meta descriptions in such a way that appeal to these emotions in the consumers and drive them to click. Once you realize how consumers are guided by emotions, you can capitalize on the power words in meta descriptions which evoke these emotions. So all you got to do is craft meta descriptions keeping consumers’ deeper emotions in mind and your click-through-rate will surge like there’s no tomorrow!

#3. Deploy CTAs

Call To Actions can create an instant impact on the searchers. They entice the searchers to act upon what they see on the screen in the form of links etc. The searchers may not actually click on the site if they are not enticed through CTAs.

When searchers read meta descriptions, they may wonder why they should visit the site. In other words, they may be wondering about the tangible and immediate benefits. This is where you can tweak your meta descriptions by adding CTAs to convey the benefits so that the searchers click on your site. For instance, if you can power your CTAs with words like ‘free trial’, ‘discount’ etc., you can get them to click on the site.

In short, you can lure the searchers to click on your site if you use appropriate CTAs. So deploy powerful CTAs to optimize meta descriptions for more clicks!

#4. Leverage Keywords

Placing appropriate keywords in meta descriptions is one of the proven SEO techniques. However, a lot of people miss out on using this space to utilize their keywords.

In fact, meta descriptions are one of the most important places where you should place your keywords because these keywords align with the searches. This is exactly what searchers use while looking for information on Google Search.

Therefore, if you power your meta descriptions with the right set of keywords, you are actually making sure that searchers find your website easily and see those keywords in meta descriptions as well. As a result, they will find your meta description relevant to their search and will find it compelling to click on the site. Thus, if you start leveraging keywords in meta descriptions, you can easily get searchers to click on your site.

#5. Avoid Repetition

A lot of people get lazy and use the same meta descriptions for different web pages of their site.

Anything wrong with that?

Yes, an awful lot. When you use the same meta description for two different pages, you are going to confuse Google. When Google gets confusing signals from your site, it ends up hurting you. You will get pushed down in your ranking.

In spite of all your good efforts in other aspects of SEO, this could be one of the things which can go against you.

So all you got to do is craft unique meta description for each of your web pages and avoid repetition. This alone can save you a lot of trouble with Google and increase clicks!

#6. Go for Rich Snippets

Rich snippets are meta descriptions which are a lot more than textual description. They carry a wide variety of things related to the site.

It could contain a link that searchers can explore. It could also contain reviews and rating to give the searchers a better sense of the quality of the products on the site. There could be video images as well to provide more insight into what the site entails.

It provides twin advantages. It helps search engines understand the worth of your site better. It also helps searchers obtain more detailed information regarding your site in a nutshell.

Searchers would love to have a snapshot of the entire site in the form of rich snippets and hence they would love to click and explore the rest as well. This is what you want, right? Then go ahead and craft rich snippets instead of dull meta descriptions!

Parting Note

Meta descriptions can play a vital role in increasing the clicks, provided you get it right. Optimizing meta descriptions calls for creativity and imagination on your side because it lends itself to a lot of innovation. So, all you got to do is invest in meta descriptions!

Make them as enticing as possible. Try to write pithy and compelling statements that invite searchers to click and read more.

As there are many ways in which you can optimize meta descriptions, you could get confused where to start. This is why these 6 surefire ways to optimize meta descriptions may prove quite useful.

So, optimize meta descriptions using these surefire ways and ensure plenty of clicks!

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Smith Andrew

Smith Andrew is a content writer & blogger in Ranking by SEO. In his corporate life, he has written many blogs and articles on SEO, Link building, SMO.

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• 6 Surefire Ways to Optimize Meta Descriptions for More Clicks - November 16, 2018