The meta description is that little description that appears in search engines and is very important because it is the first information that a potential visitor sees about your page. The meta description should be a short summary of the information on that page. The length of the meta description should be between 150 and 160 characters.
The meta title is the title that appears above the meta description in search engine results. The default WordPress settings make it in the form of site name + page name or slogan. An original meta title can increase the number of visitors to the page.
Each page has a standard meta title and meta description, if at all. website creation an SEO plugin has been installed. The standard meta description is the first sentence on the site. This sentence can be truncated or too short, so it is important to set a unique meta title and meta description for each page.
The most popular plugins for WordPress are Yoast SEO and RankMath. Both plugins have a free and premium version, but the free version is enough for beginners. These plugins not only help you set a meta description, but also help you improve the quality of your website and increase your ranking in search engine results. There are all kinds of comparisons between the two on the internet to see which is superior, but both do their job exceptionally well. At BRO Media we use RankMath most often because it is easier to use, but Yoast SEO has more recommendations for improving the text and is recommended for those who do not have basic notions of SEO optimization.
After you have installed RankMath and filled in your company details, you go to page or article panel whose meta description you want to change and in the part of At the top right you will find the "Edit Snippet" buttonIf it doesn't appear like the image below, you need to click on the red button in the top right, which shows you something like „0/100”
Click on that button and a window opens that allows you to change the meta title and meta description of the page. You have 5 dashes that indicate how long the meta description can be. Try to make green dashes and not have red dashes because they truncate your meta description. RankMath allows you to see how the meta description will look on desktop and mobile. You can also change the meta description and meta title on social media and you can add a representative image. That image will appear when you share on social networks. Rank math allows you to see how it looks on Facebook and Twitter. The size of the meta description is reduced for shares on social media.
After you have installed Yoast SEO, you will see in the page/article admin panel, top right, the Yoast SEO logo. Click on it and a window with several options opens. Then choose the option "Google Preview" and another window opens showing you the current meta description and meta title.
You can change the format of the meta title using variables or you can delete the standard variables and write a unique meta title. Try to make a meta description that will make the line below green.
The meta description must contain important keywords and be a actual summary of the page content. Google penalizes sites that have exaggerated meta descriptions and realizes whether the user found the information on your page or had to go to other sites to find that information. The meta description should be attractive to those looking for that product or service, but not be exaggerated. Depending on your marketing strategy or your field of activity, you can also use your brand name in the meta description.
If you offer services, add in the meta description your experience in that field and possibly specify if you have prices displayed on that page. When searching for services, many people also want to know an estimated cost. Don't forget to include keywords that you consider important.
If you have a online store, you can include in the meta description that you offer free shipping or that you have discounts on a certain category of products.
To help people see the most relevant meta descriptions, Google bolds the words they search for in your meta description. Before you write a meta description, make sure you're using the most searched keywords in your industry.
The meta description may be different from the one you set if it does not contain the keywords used by the searcher. Google shows instead of the meta description you set, a phrase from that page that contains the searched keyword.
Google allows the use of emoticons in meta descriptions. Do you have a list of emoticons accepted, which you can use in your meta description to attract attention.
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