Google: The fundamentals of writing meta descriptions do not change with longer search snippets
Google has officially commented on what webmasters should focus on when writing meta descriptions after Google expanded their search results snippets.
In early November, Google confirmed that it had expanded snippets from search results from 160 characters to a maximum of 320 characters. Google told Search Engine Land that while the snippet may be longer, the "fundamentals of writing a description" have not changed.
The description is longer but the principle of writing the meta has not changed
Google may or may not display 320 characters, or may not display your meta description, and Google may or may not display content from your page. There are many ways Google decides which search results snippet to show based on the searcher's query and the content on your page. A Google spokesperson told us "there's no need to ask publishers to suddenly expand their meta description if they feel their current pages are appropriate" We'll now show some longer paragraphs, which means we can show more description tags.
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In short, if you're happy with how your meta descriptions appear to your searchers, then leave them be. If not, you can try changing them. Either way, meta descriptions don't play a role in search ranking, they do play a role in what searchers see in Google search results and can have an impact on your click-through rate. you from Google search results.
Here's Google's official statement about the snippet change:
The fact that our snippets are older doesn't change the fundamentals of writing a meta description. Usually they should interest the user with a short relevant summary of the content inside. Now we're going to show some longer paragraphs, which means we can show more meta description tags. However, we've never had a meta description tag length limit before, as we mentioned earlier this year. So there's no need for publishers to suddenly expand their meta description tags, if they feel their current pages are sufficient. As a reminder, our snippet is auto-generated. Sometimes they use what's in the meta description tag. More often, they are created by displaying content from the page itself and can be part of a meta description tag, relevant to each query.
John Mueller from Google also commented on this in detail in a recent Google Hangout at the 29:41 placemark in that Hangout. Here's what he said:
There's been a lot of discussion about extended descriptions and descriptions, but people are confused about whether SEOs should update existing metas or let Google expand them for us. Which one do you choose?
So I've seen some discussion around this I don't know what people have been discussing.
So overall, one of the things we're testing is showing longer descriptions in search results, and I believe that's what more and more people are seeing.
So for the descriptions we show we try to focus on the description you provide on your pages but if we need more information or more context based on user query use then maybe we can also get part of the page. Basically from a purely technical perspective, these descriptions are not ratings for anything. So it's not the case that changing your descriptions or making them longer or shorter or tweaking them or putting keywords in them will affect your site's ranking. However, it can affect how users view your site in search results and whether they actually click through to your page. So that's kind of one of those aspects to keep in mind.
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And with that aspect in mind sometimes it makes sense to make sure that the description that you are providing to the search engines, can be shown to users when they are looking for ordinary things on your site . That description is something that explains your service as your site's provider, possibly the only recommendation you have on your site. It's the kind of incentive people click through to your page that can make sense in many cases.
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And sometimes it makes sense to say I know the best way to say this so I'll put it in the description and if Google can show this my hope is that people will see my site. obviously higher than all the others and please click on my site instead of some other site that is ranking in the same search results page.
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So with that in mind. This is not a ranking factor. It can affect how your site is displayed in search results. So with that I definitely see it as something legit that you can say well I want to make sure I type my proposal is there fully and so I'll try to write something a little longer and shows that in my meta description.
One thing to keep in mind is that we adjust the description based on the user's query. So if you're doing a site query and see this in your search results for your site that's not necessarily what a normal user would see when they see a search. good.
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So make sure to check in the search console and search analytics the top queries that lead to your pages and try those queries out to see how your site search results. And if you want to change the snippet displayed for your website for individual pages on your site then by all means go and do it.
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So test your analytics, see if you can improve click-through rates on your popular pages in search and see if it makes a difference to the past.
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