How to Add Meta Descriptions in WordPress

There are many different SEO techniques you can use when trying to get your content noticed by search engines and others alike. One of the techniques that plays an important role in your website ranking is the inclusion of meta tags, where the meta description is practically the most important.

A meta description is a short snippet, which is a tag in HTML that is usually the first bit of your content people see in search results. Considering this can help them decide whether to click on your page.It is especially important that you do your best when creating your meta description.

Fortunately, setting up your meta descriptions is as easy as can be if you choose the right SEO tools to optimize your website. That’s why today we’re going to talk about and show you everything you need to know when it comes to this vital SEO strategy. How to add WordPress meta descriptions using Yoast SEO plugin?.

How Meta Descriptions Work

Usually, there are three things people see first when they come across your page in search results: title, URL of your page and meta description. As we mentioned earlier, a meta description is a small paragraph that represents a compelling summary of what your post or page is about. If your meta description contains keywords that users are searching for, search engines will highlight them when displaying your meta description on the search engine results page (SERP).

For example, if you type ‘WordPress’ in the Google search bar, a meta description would look like this:

Before we continue, we should point out that you don’t need to create your own meta description. Well, Google automatically selects a few sentences from your content that it thinks are most important. But unfortunately, even if you set your own, Google may still show the wrong meta description sometimes. However, if you want complete control over the first thing your users see about your page, we highly recommend writing your own.

What Should You Consider When Creating Your Own Meta Descriptions?

It’s safe to say that The main purpose of the meta description is to entice users to click on your page by summarizing the essence of the content in a concise but engaging manner.. While it may seem like it’s easier said than done, there are some general things to consider that can be very helpful when figuring out how to create your meta description. Here’s what you should keep in mind:

How to Add Meta Descriptions in WordPress with Yoast SEO Plugin

Besides paying attention to your focus keyword, SEO title and slug, Yoast SEO also allows you to easily change your meta description If you are using a WordPress powered website. After installing and installing the Yoast SEO plugin and start editing your page or post, you will find the option to add your own meta description in the Yoast SEO tab just below your content section. Click “Edit snippet” and your meta description field will appear.

To add your Meta description, type your text in the Meta description field and change it until the bar turns green (if the bar is orange, your meta description is too short, red indicates it’s too long).

Yoast SEO also allows you to set a meta description for individual categories or tags. You can do this by accessing Posts > Categories (or Posts > Tags). Next, find the category or tag for which you want to change the meta description and click Edit.

Once there, you will be able to find Yoast options to change your meta description.

Yoast SEOs Search View tab also provides some additional options for setting your meta description. You can easily access this tab from your WordPress dashboard by going to: SEO > Search Appearance.

For example, if you want, you can also create meta description templates for all your pages or posts on the site. Content Types tab.

Here you can include one of the available snippet variables by clicking “Add snippet variable”.

You can choose to add. Site Titleyour Title (i.e. the title of your page or post), a primary category your post or page and a Separator (a small symbol that can be used to separate different parts of your text from one snippet variant or two different snippet variants).

we added Title and Site Title Add variables to the meta description template for a post to demonstrate how you can combine snippet variables with your own text:

And this meta description will display like this:

Same way, Content Types tab allows you to add meta description templates for your custom post types like WooCommerce. Product Yoast plugin automatically detects your custom post types and adds them to the options.

Of course, you can always use your templates as a base and then modify them as you wish on the page, post or custom post type.

Inside taxonomies In the tab, you can also set a default meta description for all your categories and tags:

Finally, archives tab also allows you to change the meta description of your archives.

Solution

Because they represent the first bits of information about your page, Meta descriptions are small but extremely important components of your website’s SEO.. With the right toolset, it’s not that hard to identify a suitable meta description that will be recognized and displayed by search engines. Just be mindful of the character length (around 155 characters is ideal) and Make sure your meta description is clear, unique, informative and believable enough For users to click on your content.