SEO is a dynamic realm. There is no denying that on a daily basis Google: the biggest search engine of them all, updates its algorithm. The recent of them being google’s latest meta description update.
Google is well known to provide relevant results to its users. They don’t want their user to fall for some spammy website with no relevant information. It is the reason they keep updating their core algorithm. Not just that, they also continually work on their algorithms and updates them regularly to cater better services to their users.
It is the most prominent reason that Google is the best platform for all sorts of businesses. Once you understand how it works, you can showcase your company that is in the best interest of your audience. Showcasing your business at the convenience of your audience grows your business.
In a nutshell, Google is not dictating anything (It is the most common allegation by the haters of Google!!!). They are just helping you to be relevant to the audience because, in the end, it will be the audience that will decide whether your business is best for them or not. They own you in one way or another.
In this post, you will get to know all about the meta description update by Google on Dec 2017. We will not only cover the updates but also how you can leverage the update to enhance your SEO rankings and delight your customers.
Without further ado, let’s get you started,
What Is google’s Latest Meta description update?
Back in the days, we use to write meta descriptions for websites of a max of 155-160 characters only. This acts as a synopsis of the web page for Google. It helps Google to understand what your site is all about.
The meta description of a web page must have the target keyword to rank well on the SERPs. And after December 2017, everything we know evolves. It certainly didn’t change, but it developed to achieve more.
Google made their intentions very clear about serving users with their RankBrain update earlier in the year of 2017. They even made statements out in public that design your website for users not for Google. Serving the user’s methodology enhanced the experience of the audience.
This meta description update is also all about that. 155 characters were very short to give an overview of your website. Users always find it difficult to comprehend what is on the site. That leads Google to take a harsh measure. A step that clears out the most important thing, the character limit. They increase the character limit from 160 max to 320 max.
That gives the webmasters liberty to explain what their website is all about. A more detailed meta description was a great move by Google to enhance the user interaction. With increased meta description, users will get to know the website better even before opening it. That might affect the CTR (Click-Through-Rate) of your site but certainly controls the bounce rate as only relevant visitors will browse your site.
Let’s learn more about how you can leverage this update to keep your SEO rankings intact.
What Does Google Thinks About Meta Descriptions?
Here is what Google has mentioned in their google support forum about the meta description.
“The description attribute within the <meta> tag is a good way to provide a concise, human-readable summary of each page’s content. Google will sometimes use the meta description of a page in search results snippets if we think it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content. Accurate meta descriptions can help improve your click-through; here are some guidelines for properly using the meta description.”
It shows that Google takes the meta descriptions very seriously. You should start using meta descriptions for the betterment of your website rankings.
Best Practices To Make Sure That Your Website’s SEO Is Intact
Here are some points that will help you in understanding what is the course of actions you need to take to make sure that your website’s SEO is intact.
● Filter Your Priority Pages
The first thing you need to do is, find out which of the 20% of your pages attract 80% of your traffic. The main point of this search is quite simple. You don’t have to change all your meta descriptions. There is no requirement of lengthening the meta descriptions for the sake of changing. Unless it is making sense, you don’t have to add anything up. Once you select your priority pages, you move to the next step which is,
● Use The Extra Space To Explain More
The character limit is now 320. The previous description was of only 160 characters. You now have exactly the same amount of space left which can be very helpful in addressing your audience. Use LSI to make sense out of the meta description. They will help your audience to understand more about your audience.
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What Do You Learn From This Update?
There is nothing to panic about. It will not affect your SEO rankings if you are serving your audience well. The only reason to increase the meta description is to provide webmasters with an opportunity to explain their business.
Let’s summarise what we learned here in this post,
- We use to write meta descriptions for websites of a max of 155-160 characters only. This acts as a synopsis of the web page for Google.
- The meta description of a web page must have the target keyword to rank well on the SERPs.
- Users always find it difficult to comprehend what is on the site. That leads Google to take a harsh measure. A step that clears out the most important thing, the character limit. They increase the character limit from 160 max to 320 max.
- That might affect the CTR (Click-Through-Rate) of your site but certainly controls the bounce rate as only relevant visitors will browse your site.
- The first thing you need to do is, find out which of the 20% of your pages attract 80% of your traffic. The main point of this search is quite simple. You don’t have to change all your meta descriptions. There is no requirement of lengthening the meta descriptions for the sake of changing.
- The character limit is now 320. The previous description was of only 160 characters. You now have exactly the same amount of space left which can be very helpful in addressing your audience.
So, these are the main points. I hope you do like this post. If you are making sense to your audience, you are making sense with Google. Let me know your thoughts via comments. Till then, have a great day ahead.