In part 2 of our digital marketing blog series, we discussed the importance of keywords to help strengthen your website’s SEO. In this article, we will cover the meta descriptions for your web pages and how to ensure they’re helping- not hurting, your SEO score.
What is a meta description?
According to Wordstream, a meta description (sometimes called a meta description attribute or tag) is an HTML element that describes and summarizes your page’s contents to users and search engines. This snippet of text may appear in the search engine results under your headline. You can find the meta description on any web page by right-clicking on the page and selecting “view source” or “view page source.”
Search engines claim that meta descriptions do not have a direct impact on SEO. However, meta descriptions boost the click-through rate (CTR) for webpages, signaling to search engines that your page is trustworthy. A strong meta description will boost your SEO score.
Strengthening your meta descriptions.
How long your meta description should be? According to Yoast SEO, a meta description should be around 155 characters to impact your SEO positively.
Meta descriptions are one of the first things people will see when your webpage appears in their search results:
- aim to use content with an active voice in your blogs and website pages
- always include a call to action on all website pages
It’s a great idea to include the focus keyword you chose for the article in your meta description. This is a creative way to include additional keywords without taking away from your article’s readability score. For financial advisors and firms, keywords are the ‘key’ to new clients. Keywords should always relate to the services you offer and the ‘why’ behind those services.
Finally, make sure your meta description is unique from the other pages on your site and are already ranking for your targeted topic. Meta descriptions signal to search engines that your content is original, which helps your pages rank higher.
If you are unsure your website is using meta descriptions, reach out to your website provider or hire an SEO expert to assist you. Remember that meta descriptions should be reviewed and updated at least once per year. Blog posts should also contain meta descriptions, and if you’re fortunate your website’s technology will automatically create meta descriptions for you with each blog post.
While managing wealth is the most important things firms do, marketing should also be one of the top things as well. Having someone (or a marketing team) updating website content and meta descriptions is also essential to help ensure prospects find you. If you’re a firm with multiple advisors, consider enterprise marketing technology for content distribution and enterprise websites that your marketing team can manage internally.
Remember that MarTech pays for itself by keeping your advisors at the top of search engines, thanks to the help of meta descriptions that help boost SEO.
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