Google Updates Documentation On Meta Descriptions via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google updated its documentation connected creating high-quality meta descriptions that volition amusement up successful the hunt results by adding examples of champion and worst practices.

The alteration was made successful the documentation for controlling the snippet successful the hunt results.

Meta Description successful Search Snippets

Search snippets are the summaries and descriptions shown successful the hunt results for sites that rank.

Google’s documentation shares however to power the hunt snippets successful the hunt results.

The information utilized to make the hunt snippet traditionally comes from the meta statement and, sometimes, the contented itself.

Meta descriptions generated from leafage contented utilized to beryllium called ransom notes due to the fact that they sometimes look to beryllium random snippets with keywords successful them.

Google’s alteration to the hunt snippet guidance adds much examples of the close and incorrect ways to make meta descriptions.

Examples of Meta Descriptions

Google listed 4 categories of bully and atrocious meta statement examples.

Here is the database of the 4 atrocious ways to make meta descriptions:

Bad Category Examples

1. List of keywords
   Google calls retired meta descriptions that are simply a database of Keywords describes meta descriptions that incorporate keywords and don’t fuss to summarize anything.
2. Same statement is utilized for each quality article
   This is erstwhile meta descriptions are templated and are the aforesaid for antithetic web documents.
3. Doesn’t summarize the page
   This is simply a communal mistake for meta descriptions. It’s casual to autumn into the wont of penning meta descriptions focused connected the keyword operation oregon the taxable and hide to summarize what the leafage is about.
4. Too short
   This is self-explanatory and benignant of akin to the erstwhile one. If the meta statement is truthful concise that it doesn’t summarize the webpage, past it’s not optimized.

Examples of Better Meta Descriptions

Google past lists examples of meta descriptions they o.k. of.

1. Describe the business, not the webpage
   The archetypal meta statement illustration relates to a brick-and-mortar concern that uses a meta statement describing what is sold, the company’s location, and hours of operation. That’s absorbing due to the fact that it’s not a statement of what is connected the webpage but a statement of what the concern is about. Essentially, that’s accusation astir the concern users would similar to know.
2. Use webpage content
   The 2nd illustration of a bully meta statement is 1 from a quality nonfiction that uses a snippet from the nonfiction itself. That’s interesting, too. If the CMS has a relation that retrieves the archetypal 70 oregon truthful words from each piece, past that means it’s important to summarize what the nonfiction is astir successful the precise archetypal sentence, which is simply a bully signifier to statesman with. Using the archetypal condemnation from a leafage of contented is simply a solution utilized successful immoderate forum software, truthful it’s bully to spot that attack validated.
3. Summarize
   In the 3rd champion practice, Google says that summarizing the full webpage is the champion mode to attack meta descriptions. This is astir apt the essence of what Google wants from a meta description.
4. Be circumstantial and detailed
   The past illustration is simply a meta statement for a merchandise page. The proposal for this concern is to absorption connected the circumstantial details of the merchandise for merchantability connected a merchandise page. This is Google’s illustration of a merchandise leafage meta description: "<meta name="description" content="Self-sharpening mechanical pencil that autocorrects your penmanship. Includes 2B auto-replenishing lead. Available successful some Vintage Pink and Schoolbus Yellow. Order 50+ pencils, get escaped shipping.">"

Best Practices for Meta Description

The examples of high-quality meta descriptions are a adjuvant summation to the documentation connected controlling the hunt snippet.

Most of the contented successful the updated conception astir meta descriptions is remarkably accordant with erstwhile articles published by Google connected the aforesaid topic.

For example, mode backmost successful 2007, Google published that it was acceptable to programmatically adhd meta descriptions by repurposing on-page content:

“For larger database-driven sites, similar merchandise aggregators, hand-written descriptions are much difficult.

In the second case, though, programmatic procreation of the descriptions tin beryllium due and is encouraged—just marque definite that your descriptions are not “spammy.”

Good descriptions are human-readable and diverse, arsenic we talked astir successful the archetypal constituent above. The page-specific information we mentioned successful the 2nd constituent is simply a bully campaigner for programmatic generation.”

Google updated the documentation for however to scroll the website snippet shown successful hunt results by improving the conception astir meta descriptions. The betterment is to amusement examples of what it means to person a high-quality meta statement for antithetic kinds of webpages.

The wide takeaway tin beryllium said to beryllium close and descriptive astir what the webpage is about. If it’s astir a product, past picture the merchandise successful the meta description. If the leafage is informational, summarize the full webpage; successful immoderate cases, it’s good to usage contented straight from the webpage itself.

Citation

Read Google’s updated guidance here:

Control your snippets successful hunt results – Use Quality Descriptions