On-Page Optimization: Meta Descriptions

Overview

Meta Descriptions don’t directly affect search engine ranking. However, they do influence Click-Through-Rate, social sharing, and have residual effects on ranking and page performance. Descriptions should be enticing and informative. If left blank, Google will try its best to populate with relevant information, which may not be ideal. 

Information

Best Practices

• Meta descriptions often are truncated at around 160 characters, so between 150-160 characters is ideal.
• Think of the snippet as an advertisement. Make it enticing to click the headline.
• Include the keyword phrase you are targeting for that page. It won’t help your ranking, but it will be placed in bold, and that can help it stand out.
• Avoid sitewide duplicate tags. Each page should have unique content and therefore a unique description.
• Special characters are allowed, but don’t use too many as they may send a spammy signal to your visitors, and Google.
  Examples: ➥⤤😉💗♛♞🌗⭐
• If no meta description is entered, Google will do its best to generate one for you. However, it will not generate one for social shares, so it’s best to fill one in.
• Avoid using duplicate titles. You can find duplicate page titles in Search Console under HTML Improvements, or by downloading and running a scan using Screaming Frog.
• Other services for optimizing Meta Descriptions and Title Tags is Moz (subscription), or their free browser extension called MozBar.

Symphony Tip

During the onboarding process, the Symphony Brand Management team will ask brands to specify page descriptions for PDPs, PLPs, and static pages.

Want to change a description tag on Symphony after onboarding?

PLPs

1. Go to Catalog > Categories and click on Edit for a particular category.
2. On the 1st tab, update the Description tag.
3. If unspecified, this defaults to the dummy site-wide description tag specified during onboarding.
4. Click on Save to auto-update the description.

PDPs

1. Go to Catalog > Products and click on Edit for a particular product.
2. Scroll down, and open up the SEO tab.
3. Update the Description tag here.
4. If unspecified, this defaults to the dummy site-wide description tag specified during onboarding.
5. Click on Save to auto-update the description.

Compose (including homepage)

1. Go to Compose > Web and find the page you want to edit in the page selector.
2. On the right-hand side tabs, click on Page Details.
3. Click on the SEO tab and update your page description.
4. If unspecified, this defaults to the dummy site-wide description tag specified during onboarding.
5. Click on Save.
6. Click on Publish to auto update the description.