In the recent changes, Google has expanded meta description length and make it easier for everyone to promote their brand. Now Google focuses on showing longer snippets by breaking the limitation of 155 characters and allowing 386 characters limit. So, in 2018 it is the right time to revisit guidelines related to meta description to understand it in a better way.
What is Meta Description? Before we understand every guideline related to meta description length. Let us understand what meta description exactly is? Well, Meta description is basically the HTML attributes that give us summaries of different web pages. The length of meta description depends on the characters and it is displayed under the blue clickable links on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
Rough Guidelines on Meta Description Length
Google is always about enhancing the user’s experience. Google algorithm revolves around an idea of determining the relevant portion of the web pages that match the search results. Previously, the optimum meta description length was considered to be 160 characters but now it is twice as what it was. It has reached a limit of 320 characters which is just two times of what it used to be. This expanded length has given a clearer idea of what the page is all about which is likely to increase more curiosity as well as clicks on the web pages from user’s end.
The official statement by Google was announced in December when the news related to meta description length was disseminated among people.
Should You Made Changes in Old Meta Description to Increase Length?
Now, due to this sudden changes, you must be thinking about increasing the length of the old meta description for getting good ranking on Google. But it is probably a bad idea and useless effort because if your web pages are including quality content then Google will extract a snippet of 320 characters on its own on the basis of the relevance of its content.
What is Meta Description? Before we understand every guideline related to meta description length. Let us understand what meta description exactly is? Well, Meta description is basically the HTML attributes that give us summaries of different web pages. The length of meta description depends on the characters and it is displayed under the blue clickable links on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
Rough Guidelines on Meta Description Length
Google is always about enhancing the user’s experience. Google algorithm revolves around an idea of determining the relevant portion of the web pages that match the search results. Previously, the optimum meta description length was considered to be 160 characters but now it is twice as what it was. It has reached a limit of 320 characters which is just two times of what it used to be. This expanded length has given a clearer idea of what the page is all about which is likely to increase more curiosity as well as clicks on the web pages from user’s end.
The official statement by Google was announced in December when the news related to meta description length was disseminated among people.
Should You Made Changes in Old Meta Description to Increase Length?
Now, due to this sudden changes, you must be thinking about increasing the length of the old meta description for getting good ranking on Google. But it is probably a bad idea and useless effort because if your web pages are including quality content then Google will extract a snippet of 320 characters on its own on the basis of the relevance of its content.
How to Write an Effective Meta Description Under New Rules by Google?
The recent modifications in the meta description length have aroused so many questions in the mind of the users. The most common among all is how to write an effective meta description under new rules. So, now you have to double the limit of the content of meta description then what exactly you should do? There are no quantum mechanic rules to be applied for the same. It is quite simple to answer this question and it depends on the nature of the web page itself. If
primarily, you were doing the content marketing and providing a detailed summary of the article, even now you need to follow the same process. But this time to increase the length, you can add the keyword once or twice more than what you used to add to the old length. Use variant keywords to make your content more compelling. Make sure you don’t fill your content with abundant keywords as it will give you red flag on Google.
The Impact of this Change on Our Websites
Due to this change, the rate of CTR search results will drop frequently. As people will get all the information in one description, they might not click on the link of the web page. Everything actually depends on the key goals of your company. So, understand whether your meta description answers user’s query or not.
Rise in the Competition
If the people are reading long snippets on the first page then the chances of them to migrate on the second page is pretty low. They might not prefer to go to the second page when all of their queries are answered in a single snippet. This means that ranking on the first page of the SERPs become the highest priority for most of the users that bring a significant change in the current scenario. So, all this is going to give a competitive edge in the world of SEO.
Wrapping Up
Keep yourself engrossed in improving user experience because Google has dedicated an additional space to showcase your services in the most effective manner. Try to use this space in the best way to add better user experience in the target market.
The title is what most attracts people's attention: in addition to including your keyword, it must be attractive enough to incite the click like this
ReplyDeleteIt must also be consistent with the link it points to: the content must correspond to what the title "promises.
Each page will have a different title, there can not be two equal titles in the same site, as there can not be two equal pages!
Although we usually talk about characters, Google measures it in pixels. The best thing is not to exceed 55 characters since the ideal is that it looks full on any device. Check out this example, this zoho crm certified consultant page description is well optimized, evoke users to click and within the limit.
Check how your page titles look on all devices.
The Meta description will have a maximum of 156 characters, although the increase of mobile users makes it advisable not to exceed 115. If it is too long and can not be shown whole, it will be cut by adding (...) at the end, with which your message would be damaged.
Like the title, it should be descriptive and prompt the user to click.