Put description meta tag on each blog post for better search visibility
Updated: November 2020
In another post, we discussed how to give blog posts a SEO-friendly URL while giving them an attractive title that visitors see. In the present article, we'd discuss how to easily put a description to the post so that it gets more search engine visibility and search relevance.
You might have noticed that when you search something on Google, you get not only the links to the search results but also a snippet under each of them. That snippet tells more on the search result.
You might have noticed that when you search something on Google, you get not only the links to the search results but also a snippet under each of them. That snippet tells more on the search result.
The snippet or brief description comes either from a description manually given by the creator of the webpage or Google picks it up from what it finds on that webpage.
It should be obvious that when Google makes the snippet, it is usually the text at the top of the webpage, which may not always describe the subject well. So, it is highly desirable that we give a description to each post.
This description is linked to the blog post and is different from the description of the whole website or blog.
A thoughtful description helps search engines to better understand the subject of the webpage. It also helps searchers to know whether the search result is what they were looking for.
Go to Settings and then Meta tags. Check enable search description. This will allow you to add search description to the blog as well as individual posts.
Putting Description meta tag on Blogger
Go to Settings and then Meta tags. Check enable search description. This will allow you to add search description to the blog as well as individual posts.
Under it, write the search description that you want to give to the blog. This description is the snippet that will come when your blog shows up on Google search results.
Go to the post editor (where you compose or edit posts). If you have enabled search description as mentioned above, the right hand column will have an option Search Description. Click on it and give a decent description to the blog post. You should give a crisp and attractive description about the subject of the blog post.
On Wordpress, the way some settings are shown depends on the theme applied to the website/ blog. Usually, the blog's description can be reached like this:
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Adding description tag on Wordpress blog
On Wordpress, the way some settings are shown depends on the theme applied to the website/ blog. Usually, the blog's description can be reached like this:
Go to Site, then select Theme and under Customize, you will get Site identity and within it, an option to put Tagline.
For giving a description to individual blog posts, go to post editor, and look for Excerpt on the right panel. Give a nice description to the post and that's it. Your post now has a description meta tag. If you have applied an SEO plugin, that will also give an option to enter meta description to the post.
Google has said that it doesn't directly use description meta tag for ranking websites (perhaps because people can use it to manipulate search results). However, a good description does reinforce the subject and helps search engines to tag the webpage with relevant keywords.
For giving a description to individual blog posts, go to post editor, and look for Excerpt on the right panel. Give a nice description to the post and that's it. Your post now has a description meta tag. If you have applied an SEO plugin, that will also give an option to enter meta description to the post.
Does meta description tag help SEO?
Google has said that it doesn't directly use description meta tag for ranking websites (perhaps because people can use it to manipulate search results). However, a good description does reinforce the subject and helps search engines to tag the webpage with relevant keywords.
As said in the beginning, description meta tag helps searchers by telling what lies inside a search result. A relevant snippet prompts searchers to click on that search result. This improves the click through rate - a good quality signal for search engines.
One word of caution: do not use meta description to mislead search engines and humans. Do not give a description that does not match with the actual content on that post/ article. It is difficult to build trust, but it is nearly impossible to regain trust when you lose it due to unethical doings.
This post tells what makes a good description tag.
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