You may have heard that meta descriptions have little to no impact on where a page ranks on Google these days. And everything you heard about that is indeed true. No longer are the days where a keyword stuffed meta description gives a page a higher ranking than the other. And thank goodness for this. Since changes have been made to this part of Google’s Algorithm search results have been better than ever. But just because the Meta Description is no longer important to your page rank does not mean that the Meta Description is not important.

Why Meta Descriptions are Important

Meta descriptions are still very important because of the role they play in the actual clicks your page listings will get on Google. So, for example here is an example of a listing of a local Utah company on Google:

Notice that Google is pulling 3 things from your site to present on their search results. Page title, Meta Description, then the URL itself. If no Meta Description is defined in your HTML, Google has stated on several occasions that they will just pull the first most relevant text on your webpage. Why is this important? You can tell that a well written Page Title along with a Meta Description can convert much more users to click on your listing than a poor written page title and meta description. By writing unique meta descriptions for each one of your webpages, you control what it is that Google presents in their listings. Hence, giving you control on whether or not to write an enticing meta description that will attract visitors to actually click and visit your website. Remember it’s one thing to be on page 1 for a search term, and another thing to actually get clicks from that listing!

Here is a good example of a meta description from a local company here in Utah:

Notice how enticing this meta description is and how well it describes the webpage that it is representing.

Here is a bad example of a meta description from a local company here in Utah:

Notice how non-enticing this meta description is and how it does not describe well the webpage it is representing.

So as a good SEO tip, make sure to brainstorm and think hard before you write your Meta Descriptions. Good, solid well thought out meta description can make a huge difference in the ammount of traffic you get to your website.