Why don’t people click on your links?
There are certain topics and concepts that keep cropping up during discussions about search engine optimisation (SEO). One of these is the use of metatags. Let’s get one thing clear, there is no SEO advantage in the use of metatags – the search engines may index their contents but they won’t help to improve your ranking. So why bother? The answer is simple, to increase the number of visitor to your website. Let me explain.
All search engines display snippets in their results pages. The basic snippet comprises a number of elements starting with the page title, a brief description and one or more links.
The page title comes straight from the document head (and is a vital SEO component), but description has two possible sources: an extract from the page contents or the description meta tag.
If the search engine can’t find or you don’t have a suitable description metatag a description is generated authomatically from the page contents. You can always tell when this happens because the description in the snippet contain ellipses (…). The result is not always ideal which is why you get snippets like this:
Guidelines for Examination – This area contains legal texts from the EPO, … Quick navigation:Home Page [Alt] + 0 | Content [Alt] + 1 | Sitemap [Alt] + 8 …
But if you write your own description then you get a snippet that looks like this:
Guidelines on how to build a navigation system that is intuitive, effective and search engine friendly along with a few tips on what to avoid.
Which one of the two would you rather click on?
Effective websites have a killer page title/description combination. They intrigue and entice the searcher to follow the link in preference to those sites with generic and often boring descriptions that have been generated by the database.
If you want to add a decription mettag it’s very simple. All you need to do is add the following to your document head:
<meta name="description" content="This is the description">
It may be that your CMS or e-commerce site has a facility to add metatags automatically, you will need to sort this one out yourself. If you have a wordpress blog there are loads of plugins to choose from.
When you write your description think about your potential visitors. How are you going to make them feel welcome, as if you care about them – and all in 160 characters? It’s no good just chucking a few words together and hoping they will stick. you need to take the same care as you do with your on page content.
This means starting with the mundane
Unique bobble hats from $12.99
And writing persuasive copy:
Want something different for your head? For just £12.99 we can create and deliver a unique bobble hat in any size and any style. Call now on 0800 BOBBLE to get yours.
But don’t think that just a winning description will convert into a sale. You still need a title for the search engines and en effective product page to convince the visitor to buy.
And it does work. I ranked well for a specific keyword combination but wasn’t getting any traffic. I experimented with different descriptions and after a while (2-3 months) began to get a decent number of visitors. I hadn’t changed anything on the page, all I did was make sure my description was a bit more friendly.
By taking the time to describe the contents of your page it shows you care about your visitors and that can make the difference between making a sale and being passed by.
Lots more advice on how to make your site more effective here.