Optimizing page descriptions

The page description (meta description) is an HTML element that is stored in the source code of a website. It contains a brief summary of the content of the page. The page description is used by search engines to deliver the most appropriate results for search queries. This article gives you a brief introduction.

Tips for a good page description

Search engines display the page description in their search results, usually directly below the page title. If a website does not contain a page description, text from the website often appears instead. Well-maintained page descriptions for a website can lead to better search engine rankings.

Below you will find tips for a good page description:

Length: Between 140 and 180 characters long.
Relevance: Summarize the topic of the content page in a concise way.
Pique interest: Write in an interesting way to entice readers to click.
Link to page title: The description is usually displayed together with the title of the page. Make sure that the page title and page description go well together. You can find out more about page titles in the Help Center article "Optimizing page titles".
Uniqueness: The page description should be unique and stand out from other page descriptions in your web project.
Keywords: Integrate relevant keywords into your page description to improve the visibility of your website in search results.

Edit page description in WordPress

For WordPress, it is best to use a plugin that simplifies the maintenance of page descriptions:

Install one of these plugins in your WordPress admin area and maintain the page descriptions by following the plugin's instructions.

Insert page title in HTML code

You can also enter the page description of a page manually in the source code of your website. To do this, insert the following code into the <head> area of each individual page:

<meta name="description" content="Your description" />