Is the website of your local business successfully drawing useful traffic? If you are not getting your potential customers despite ranking well in the SERPs then modification is necessary in your meta description. A proper meta description has the potential to get high CTR, conversions and better leads. But you need to know how to write an intriguing meta description for your local business to attract your potential customers.
Targeting your local audience requires you to be more precise when writing an engaging meta description. Here are a few details that you need to know about creating intriguing meta descriptions for local businesses.
To understand meta descriptions you must have an idea of meta tags. Therefore, let’s begin with meta tags before we start explaining meta descriptions.
Meta tags: In a nutshell
Meta tags are mainly HTML elements that inform the visitors and search engines what the webpage is about. In the Head section of the HTML documents two elements must be present, title tag and meta description.
What is a title tag?
Title tag is an HTML code tag that specifies the title of a web page. It mainly appears as a clickable headline in the search results and also is crucial for SEO and social sharing. Moreover, a web page’s title tag is expected to be a brief description of its content.
What is a meta description?
It’s a small paragraph that is placed in the HTML of a webpage that is mainly a summary of its content. The meta description is displayed below the page’s URL in the search results. Your page’s meta description also appears when users share your content through various social channels.
Importance of meta description
Check out the points below to see how your website can benefit from including meta descriptions.
- It has the potential to boost CTR(Click Through Rate) as it explains your site briefly on the SERPs.
- An intriguing meta description increases the chance of your page to get ranked faster because of better CTR.
- A meta description that includes relevant keywords can certainly improve your ranking.
- It also becomes easier for users to choose the appropriate page from the SERPs.
What should be the actual meta description length?
The length of meta description also matters when you need to write a proper meta description for your website. As per leading providers of SEO service in India the ideal length of a page’s meta description should be around 120-155 characters maximum. You must maintain this length to avoid the truncation of the meta description in the search results.
By making a relevant meta description you can help Google to better understand what your web page is all about. According to Google your meta description must not be longer than a small paragraph. In fact, you can limit its length within one or two sentences if you are following Google’s guideline.
Why do local business websites need meta description?
Your business needs to get customers near your location and your page’s meta description plays an important role. It will help your website appear higher in the search results for local business search terms. Consequently you will get better leads which is important for your local business’s growth.
Writing appropriate metadata also helps your site’s visitors to know more about the services that you offer. Moreover, you can also utilize your page’s meta titles and descriptions to promote your business. Also as a reward of providing correct information within search results about your business you will get better CTR.
Few points to consider before you start writing meta description
When it comes to writing a meta description for the website for your local business you must stay aware of a few key points. This will help you prepare a useful location meta description that will attract your potential leads. Check out the points below and understand what you must include in your meta description.
Including a landmark in your description is important for creating an effective meta description. Include a popular place near your location as a landmark that locals are completely familiar with. This helps address directly to your potential customers.
Visitors must be in search of some common questions related to your services such as hours of operation. By providing such answers you are also clarifying your users’ problems.
The purpose of writing meta descriptions is to bring in more traffic and get more clients. Consider if the information that you have provided in the meta description is helpful to get new business. If you think that you can make it more relevant by including other details you should make changes accordingly.
Features of a good meta description
In order to write an intuitive meta description you must be aware of the features that a good meta description must possess. Take a look at the points below and see the features that will help you create a good meta description.
It must be written in an active voice and actionable:
The meta description of your web page is mainly an invitation to the site visitors. So, you must know your potential customers and also understand how to make them motivated to visit your page. Therefore, you need to develop a description that is simple and also interesting. In short, you will have to make them understand what your page is all about. Therefore, it has to be in an active voice and also motivating.
Add a CTA:
You can use your meta description to increase the sales of your products. So, you need to include call-to-actions such as “learn more”, “get it now” etc to promote and sell your products.
Add your target keyword:
When the search keywords match some parts of your meta description, Google will highlight that section. This will make visitors click on your site’s link to visit your website.That’s why you must include your focus keywords in your meta description.
Be specific:
You can also be specific about your meta description by including the name of the manufacturer, prices etc. Therefore, you won’t even have to convince them to visit your site who are looking for those products. Also by providing such specific details you will also be able to draw in your potential customers.
It should be relevant with the content:
A good meta description is a perfect summary of the content of the page. If Google finds that your meta description is not relevant with the content of your page it may penalize you. Besides, a web page with misleading meta descriptions may increase bounce rate which is not great for your site’s SEO score.
It should be unique:
Each web page of your site must have different meta descriptions from each other. This helps improve user experience in Google and that’s why you must create unique meta descriptions. In fact, you can even leave it blank and should never try to prepare duplicate meta descriptions. Moreover, a unique meta description has the potential to motivate users to visit your site.
Tips to write an ideal meta description for local businesses
Targeting your local audience requires you to craft a meta description that is accurate and effective. That’s why you need to know a few useful tips that will help you create an effective meta description. Take a look at the following points to understand how to write a meta description that can benefit your local business.
Utilize 70% of the description to provide major information:
You should focus on providing crucial information through your page’s meta description. After all, you cannot upload something irrelevant that fails to provide proper guidance to your visitors. Google also can change your meta description if it finds it not relevant. Also, not the entire meta description is always displayed and that’s why you must not exceed it more than 120 characters. Make sure you are including all the useful information within the 70% of your description.
Include localization:
You will certainly benefit if you add localization in your meta description. Therefore, when it comes to adding the name of a place you must use the name that is popularly known among the locals. This is certainly a good idea if you want to attract your local customers. Also your meta tag should be relevant to the local seasons. Google is always in search of relevant information and adding localization to your meta description makes it more relevant. Moreover, it is also another effective way to advertise your business on Google. Local visitors need information regarding your business and such a meta description is always a great help. Thus the visitors directly get answers to certain questions such as your address. Providing answers to such questions improves the chance to get good CTR.
Relevant CTAs are going to help:
A meta description can be an invitation to your customers to visit your site to take some significant actions. Therefore, it would be wise if you add some useful CTAs to your descriptions such as “book an appointment”, “discover/click to read” etc based on the objective of the page. A significant CTA will certainly motivate the customers to click through your listings. In fact smartphone users who will be looking for phone numbers for booking appointments will benefit.
Epitomize your webpage:
You need to highlight the context of your site through your page’s meta description. Otherwise you cannot expect a high CTR as irrelevant meta description will never attract visitors. Therefore, you must summarize your page’s context in an interesting way. After all, a monotonous description will never push them to click and visit what your page has to offer. So, craft a creative meta description with all relevant information. Make sure it’s relevant otherwise Google will penalize you and you will have to face poor SEO ranking.
Make it clear and brief:
Your local business needs more visitors and that’s why you must not miss a single scope. A brief and relevant meta description is a great scope to attract your more local clients. However, you must not exceed its length more than 120 characters and provide all the information within it. Google may truncate anything beyond it and that’s why you need to describe your page despite such limitations. Once again creating an attractive one-liner will never help you. Rather it will be regarded as a description that is inadequate and also not useful to attract visitors. So, make sure you are mentioning your location, specialities, and contact information within limited characters.
It must not be confusing:
Writing a creative meta description does not mean you prepare something that is confusing for the visitors. The purpose of preparing a meta description is to prepare something that guides your visitors. So, make sure it’s not too difficult for visitors to decode it to understand its meaning. In fact, visitors would probably skip such descriptions which are not clear to them. Therefore, it has to be simple and grammatically correct. You must express the page’s context and purpose through the description so that your page remains relevant.
Adding relevant keywords:
Your meta description must include relevant keywords to make it more effective. However, make sure that you are not stuffing it with keywords after all that will never improve its ranking. Instead, find a smart way to place the relevant keywords in the description. It is also a good way to inform your visitors that the page includes all the information that they are looking for. Google will also highlight those phrases if they match with the search terms of the visitors. Thus it becomes even easier to catch the attention of the visitors through those keywords. This will certainly have a positive impact on your page’s search ranking.
Conclusion
Meta descriptions are certainly not a ranking factor but plays an important role to improve your page’s visibility. Your local business needs more local customers and a well written, effective meta description can really help. Therefore, consider the suggestions we have mentioned in this blog while crafting your page’s meta description. Moreover, hiring leading SEO services providers in India will certainly assist you to create a proper meta description that will attract leads.