Description Tag

Writing a Good Description Tag for Boosting Your Click-Through Rate

The short piece of text that appears on the search engine result pages or SERPs below the title of a website is known as the Description Tag. It is one of the primary things’ visitors view. It hence acts as the chance to convince potential visitors to click on the link to your website and choose you among the other options they see on the result pages.

If you genuinely want your CTR or click-through rate to climb up, then it is essential that you write your description tags correctly. As a result, the chances of more and more visitors coming across your website and clicking on it will increase. This will lead to an increase in traffic and sales.

SEO Description Tag

What is a Description Tag?

A description tag is a piece of HTML code that summarizes the content of a web page. It is not seen on the webpage, but search engines use it to show the searchers a snippet of the text on the search engine result pages or SERPs.

The Importance of a Description Tag

All professional SEO experts agree that a well-written description tag helps improve a web page's click-through rate or CTR. But what exactly is CTR? It is the percentage of people who see a search result and visit that particular website by clicking on the link. And what makes a good description tag? It has the following features:

  • Clear
  • Concise
  • Informative
  • Accurate reflection of the content on the webpage

Let us have a look at an excellent example of a description tag for a digital marketing company

Digital Marketing Company | Boost Traffic and Sales of Your Website

We are one of the best digital marketing companies. We can help boost the traffic on your website and also the sales you can generate. We have numerous digital marketing services for you, including - Search Engine Optimization (SEO), PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising, SMM or Social Media Marketing, and Content Marketing.

Do you wish to know more about how our services can help you? Want to grow your business? Click here!


Description Tag

The above-mentioned description tag is an ideal example of a well-written one. Why? Because it is clear, concise, informative, and uses relevant keywords per the company's services. These keywords are - digital marketing, SEO, PPC, best digital marketing companies, SMM, etc.

Furthermore, the description tag includes a CTA or call to action that promotes clicking on the link to understand more about the company's offerings.

What happens when you don't have a description tag? What does Google do in this situation?

You don't add a description tag for a web page. In that case, Google will utilize the first few paragraphs from the content on that page to create a snippet and use it as the description tag to be displayed on the SERPs. Of course, there may be more effective versions than this automated version. Hence, writing a custom, clear, concise, relevant, and keyword-rich description tag is always a good idea.

Do description tags affect my Google ranking?

While a description tag may not directly affect your ranking on SERPs, an indirect effect has been observed. How? A description tag improves your CTR, ensuring that Google sees your web pages as relevant to the keywords typed by the searchers. This, in turn, will improve your ranking.

If Google doesn't use a description tag for ranking, then does using it matter?

Even if Google doesn't use a description tag for ranking your web page on search engine result pages, it still matters. This is because a well-written description tag boosts CTS, bringing more traffic to your website.

What are some valuable tips for writing an excellent description tag?

Listed below are some of the most important tips to help you write a good description tag:

  • Don'texceed the character limit: A description tag's character limit is 150 characters.
  • Use keywords: These should be relevant to the content published on that specific webpage.
  • Keep it clear and concise: Ensure that the description tag written by you precisely reflects the content on that web page and is easy to understand for visitors.
  • Use a CTA button: Always mention a clear call to action encouraging your visitors to take the desired action like, "click here to know more," or "sign up for our exclusive newsletter," etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

To improve the SEO of your website, you must use description tags correctly. Some practices to achieve this include -

  • Keeping it below 150 characters
  • Keeping it clear and concise
  • Keeping it keyword-rich
  • Keeping it relevant
  • Adding CTA

Some common mistakes you must avoid when writing a good description tag are - 

  • Exceeding character limits
  • Irrelevant description tag
  • Missing keywords or overstuffed keywords
  • Forgetting to write descriptions
  • Boring taglines

Suppose you want your description tag to stand out from the competition. In that case, you must ensure that it is written excitingly, has the right number of relevant keywords, and is in line with the content on that specific web page.

Let us consider the example of description tags for a digital marketing company.

An example of a bad description tag -

Each of our services is important for your success, so you should hire our company.

An example of a good description tag -

We are one of the best digital marketing companies. We can help boost the traffic on your website and also the sales you can generate. We have numerous digital marketing services for you, and our experienced team will help you curate a digital marketing strategy that will surely be instrumental to your success.

You may use various tools like Google Analytics to understand better how your description tags perform and whether you are achieving the desired results.

You can increase click-through rates with the help of description tag optimization and ensure a friendly user experience. It is required to use effective keywords in the description to target the visitors. It increases the ranking of websites on search engines, which ensures SEO success for the SEO company.

Keywords have a significant role in description tag optimization. An SEO agency uses keywords after conducting research that becomes beneficial in targeting the specific audience relevant to your business. You can also target local visitors by using keywords in the description.

Description tags are important for any business in providing customers with an overview of the website. SEO services in Mumbai provide local SEO services that also contain descriptions and increase your website's relevance.

It is considered significant for on-page SEO because description tags ensure a friendly experience for visitors, and they also assist in increasing your website's ranking on search engines.

You can increase click-through rates through description tags, which are also beneficial in increasing the appearance of your website on search engines. An SEO audit of tags is significant for measuring website performance and finding errors.