Are you confused about senior living meta descriptions? You aren’t alone.
While they can impact search optimization, they don’t influence ranking directly.
Did that last sentence leave you scratching your head even more?
We get it. That’s why we decided to dig into meta descriptions on the SCCS blog today.
First, we’ll chat about why metas matter and then offer up a few tips for writing great ones.
Why Meta Descriptions Matter
Meta descriptions are the little summaries you write to help Google and other search engines understand what your post or page is all about.
One important thing to understand is those little summaries you see on search engine results pages (SERPs) are not meta descriptions. Those are what is known as search snippets.
People often use the terms interchangeably but they really aren’t the same thing.
Done correctly, the meta description can help improve your click-through rate from the SERPs. That’s a good thing for visitors and your SEO.
But the catch is Google rewrites an estimated 70% of all meta descriptions. While they don’t say why, experts believe most companies don’t write great metas or they purposefully write misleading ones to influence clicks.
As a senior living provider, you’ll want to keep both of those in mind. And the following tips will also help you create better meta descriptions for your content.
Tips for Writing Great Senior Living Meta Descriptions
So, what do you need to know to write a great meta description for your senior living community or aging services company?
Here are a few factors to keep in mind as you are writing:
- Be concise but descriptive. While there is no hard and fast rule for how long your meta description should be, SEO experts say the character count range is 156 to 165. You want to convey the intent of the page or post, but not have a description that is so long Google truncates the copy.
- Incorporate keywords: We know, we know. Google says keywords don’t influence meta descriptions. But, we don’t buy it. Here’s why. Head to the Google search box and type in a relevant keyword or two. Then look at the search engine results. See what’s in bold letters in the search snippets? Yep. Keywords!
- Be honest. One of the red flags that makes Google rewrite your meta descriptions is when the content on the page doesn’t match your meta. Black hat SEOs use this trick to try to earn clicks. Don’t do that. It will work against you in the long run.
- Think about your personas: Just like you target personas in your writing, you’ll also want do so when creating meta descriptions. Match the voice, tone, and style of your blog posts and web pages. (And yikes! If you don’t have personas created, this information will help.)
One last suggestion is to take some time to go back and refresh old meta descriptions. It might help you get some new traction for previously published posts.
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