There is one simple thing that will without a doubt improve your website traffic. And it’s very easy to do. It’s something everyone with a website should do, but doesn’t do.
Or at least, they don’t do it with care.
Even though you see it every single day, you don’t realise you’re looking at it.
It’s this thing called the meta description tag.
You can see it when you use a search engine or you look into the code of a web page.
Now you’re not likely to ever be trawling through the code of a web page in a hurry. But you’re sure as anything going to be using a search engine daily.
It’s not a ranking signal for Google. So why is it important?
Because it has an impact on the click through rate to your website from a search engine.
It means you can influence people’s decision to click onto your website over another.
And because Google looks at this sort of thing, it can affect how it displays websites in search results. Its goal is to deliver the most relevant result based on your query.
If a site in position 2 or 3 is getting a lot more clicks than the top ranked site, Google may see this as a relevancy issue. It could mean that rankings will change. And if you’re in position 2 or 3 in this case, it’s a good thing.
So the idea is: don’t ignore it.
Take the time to make sure every single page on your site has a good meta description.
If you leave it blank, Google decides what to show in its place. Would you rather see something that compels people to visit your site? or a bit of random text pulled from your page content?
Now what makes a good meta description?
Something that is accurately describes the page content succinctly.
What is this page about? What’s on offer? Why is it worth checking out?
Don’t worry about fluff. Keep it very simple. Throw in a call to action. Make it interesting.
For example, if you rely on phone leads for your business, add your phone number to the meta description.
Offering flat rate or free shipping on all orders? Whack that in there too.
You have plenty of room to be creative and entice people to click through.
I’ve seen sites steal traffic from competitors that ranked above them just because they had better meta descriptions.
It’s an excellent way to give your website that extra traffic injection it needs. If your site has hit a plateau, this could well be the solution to pick things up.
And if you have a boat load of meta descriptions to write, don’t worry!
Set a goal to write a handful a day.
Before you know it, every page will have a wonderful meta description that gets people clicking.
It really is as easy as that.
So don’t neglect your meta descriptions.
Let me know how you get on with optimising your meta descriptions.
If I can help, talk to me about it.
