In this article I’m going to continue the conversation about Google’s 200+ ranking factors that it uses to determine the position of a website within the search engine results page.
While some of the factors are known, others are speculated and in this series I’m going to present you with what has been determined to be proven ranking factors and what is considered to be speculated.
I am also featuring this conversation on my YouTube channel that is dedicated to helping bloggers and vloggers learn more about search engine optimization, WordPress, social media marketing, web development and web design.
Keywords in the Meta Description
Meta descriptions are very important for your website because they give a brief description about what the article or page on your website is about. This is helpful because when a person searches on Google they will be presented with around 10 results and in those results will be the title of the article and a short paragraph describing the article. This short paragraph is either chosen by Google if you don’t set it at first or you can specify what this section will display by creating a properly formatted meta description which should be about hundred and 155 characters long.
The better your meta description, the better your chance of a person clicking to view the content on your website. That is why having keywords in your meta description that match what a person will potentially type out in the search engine bar can potentially increase your visits to your website.
In 2009, Google stated that keywords in the meta description are not a ranking factor so this doesn’t have a direct impact on your placement within the search engines but it is still an important factor to optimize for your website. It will have an in direct benefits for your website because the more people visit your site, and if the content matches what the user intent was, then the time they spend on your site will be recognized by Google and this will help you in your long-term SEO strategy.
I highly recommend that you spend some time optimizing your meta description so that when a person searches online they will be more likely to click through to your website.
Also check out the video above where I talk about the benefits of using keywords within your meta description for your SEO strategy.