The humble Meta Description

The meta description gives you direct control over how your web site looks when shown on a search engine result page, here's how to set it up and tips for writing a good one

WordPress SEO
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We all spend a lot of time focusing on search engine optimisation for our WordPress sites including the dreaded question – how do I get on page 1 of Google results?

It’s worth taking the time to consider how you look once you do get found on Google.

Enter the Meta Description

In short, the meta description is the text that shows up under your page title when your web site is shown on a search engine result page.

Here’s an example.

Example SERP result

The purple text is the page title, the black text is your meta description.

Some time ago I wrote an article Look your best on search engine result pages, it walks you through the technicallities of setting meta descriptions on each of your WordPress pages and posts.

It’s a good read to brush up on that skill.

The art of writing the meta description

I came across a blog post that I wanted to share, it discusses the intricacies writing meta descriptions. So with the above information on how to insert them into your WordPress site, have a read of this post by Tim Aldiss – 33 examples of great meta descriptions for search – it’s well worth the few minutes it’ll take you to read, you’ll get some good tips that can be implemented on your own web sites.

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