[This post is part of the WordPress Guide for Beginners – Step by Step Tutorials]
Do you want more clicks from Google Search Results? Well who doesn’t, one of the best way to increase the Click Through Rate (CTR) is having a GOOD meta description.

It is true that Meta Description doesn’t have any affect on rankings. So the question is ‘Why you should use this?’. Ok, when you search for anything in Google, it serves thousands of results. Few of them show on first page.  Most of the searcher click on those results. If your results have a good meta description, then you have the chance to get searcher’s attention and finally the click.

So what is the Meta description?

The Meta Description is a meta tag that is used to describe a page/post. It provides a short summary of the page. Search Engines sometimes use this summary to let the visitors know about the page.

Not only Search Engines but also Social Media sites use it. Whenever you share a page on social networks like Facebook, Google+, each site will pull meta description.

It is confirmed that proper meta description will increase your CTR. If you can make it unique and attractive from others, you will get the searchers attention. Grabbing the attention means gaining the click. So when you are writing your Meta Description keep in mind the following tips:

Read: How to add Meta Description on WordPress Blog Post

5 Tips to Write a Good Meta Description

1. Keep it Within 150 – 160 Words:

When it comes to write a GOOD meta description, the first question comes out is ‘How long should the meta description be?‘

The answer is ‘there is no word limit on writing a meta description’. But most of the Search Engines allow 150 – 160 characters for the description.

To make it more clear lets check the Google’s own meta description that shows in Google Search. If you search for the term ‘Google’, you will find the below meta description

That is exactly 154 characters. After some research we found that Google allows maximum 159 characters, including spaces. So it is better to keep it within 150-160 Words.

2. Put Main Keywords:

This is the most important part. There is no guarantee that Google Search Results always show meta description in Listings. Google only shows the exact meta description if they find the keywords on meta description. For this, I suggest you to add the Meta Title’s keywords. For example first line of this post’s meta description could be

Learn How to Write an Effective Meta Description

It contains the main keywords, actually targeted keywords.

Google will bold the search queries in title and description that shows on the search result. If Meta description matches with the searcher’s keywords then it will be shown in bold terms. It will grab the searcher attention and you have the chance to get click.

3. Unique & Relevant Description:

Many bloggers just take the 2 or 3 lines from post and use it as Meta Description. Previously I also did the same. But it has no value cause Search Engines do the same thing if they don’t find any meta description. So it is always good to make it UNIQUE.

Another thing is Relevant Description. Make sure that your description related with your post.

4. Write Call to Action:

Use call to action words like ‘Learn how to’, ‘Click the result’, ‘View here’ ‘Find here’ etc. These words encourage users to click on your link.

I am not suggesting you to use this word on every page, but when needed. These words help you to get more click.

5. Avoid Same Words:

You have only 160 characters to write Meta Description for SEO. So it is better not to use the same word.

I always try to the use the keywords that may searcher use while searching. Using same word is waste of word in meta description.

Bonus: Another good thing is adding benefits. For Example you write a review of Hostgator Webhosting and you add  coupon code on your post. It is better to write about these coupons on your meta description.

Further Reading…

• WordPress Blog Post SEO Checklist Before You Publish the Post
• 5 Tips to Making Your Search Listings Attractive on Google
• How To Optimize Blog Post Titles for Your Readers and SEO

Your Turn

If you have some posts that receive a good amount of organic traffic, consider changing their meta to see the variation of CTR.

So do you use the meta description for your post? If so, do you have any other tips for making it more good? Let us know via comment. If you like this post, consider sharing it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.