Q for You
Be In The Know
- Apple is hiding a smile behind its new mask emoji
- Twitter is building ‘Birdwatch,’ a system to fight misinformation by adding more context to tweets
- Facebook Issues Official Response to Claims Made in Netflix Documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’
- PepsiCo admits it needs to improve digital capabilities as online sales soar
How to Efficiently Write the Perfect Meta Description
We’ll cut to the chase: descriptions can be super helpful. Without them, how would you ever decide what you’ll watch next on Netflix, or piece together visual elements of your favorite book?
Today we’re talking more specifically about meta descriptions. Even though it’s not a ranking factor for your site, it’s still important. Ahrefs is showing us how to efficiently write the perfect meta description.
Meta descriptions only show on Google 37% of the time, but it carries the power of attracting users to your site. Furthermore, sharing a page link on social media includes the meta link if you don’t write a different description when you share.
- Expand on your title tag. You’ve probably spent some time on a quality title people will click. Let your description be a second line of defense with more info about the page and enticing reasons why people should click.
- Match search intent. Do a quick search of your keywords and see what the meta descriptions on the SERP say. This can give you a good idea of intent since some descriptions are geared toward buyers and others are geared toward people seeking information or answers to questions.
- Use active voice. Speak directly to the person searching. You want them on your site, so use active voice as a clear and personal way of connecting with them.
- Be concise. You only have so many characters available in your description (~120 on mobile and ~160 on desktop.) Think about where most of your users are coming from. Either way, get your point across in the first 120 characters so it will be seen on desktop and mobile.
Think about which descriptions have effectively captured your interest and check out more examples from Ahrefs.
Test Page Title & Meta Description Visibility
Wondering where your own meta descriptions stand? Or even those of other sites? Check your own meta description length and generate previews of other sites with ToTheWeb’s Page Title & Meta Description Visibility tester.
Just enter in the page URL and this tool will generate a preview of your description as it would appear in Google. You can modify it until you arrive at your desired length and have all the info you need.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
by James Clear
This book is all about breaking bad habits and forming good ones. If we can improve ourselves and our habits by 1% every day, then we’ll be well on our way to becoming better individuals. Tiny changes can hold remarkable results.
Watch
Modern Day Time Capsule
Y’all it’s not often we have a real tearjerker in this section, so brace yourselves. Letting our loved ones know we love them is something we should never stop doing. However, we’re not always with our loved ones for their entire lives unfortunately.
Memories shares this ad about a child who reminisces about his grandpa throughout his youth. On his 18th birthday he gets a heartwarming surprise and, well, we’re totally not crying at all…
“Pushing a company agenda on social media is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine.”
Erik Qualman
