【原文链接】https://www.wordstream.com/meta-description
元描述 (有时也称为元描述属性或标签) 是一种 HTML 元素。It describes and summarizes the contents of your page for the benefit of users and search engines. 虽然元数据对 SEO 排名不像以前那么重要了, the meta description still plays a significant role in on-page SEO (On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals).
In this article, you'll learn:
- What "meta description" means, as well as how to view your site's meta description, and how it impacts visitors.
- Why meta descriptions are important to you and to your SEO rankings.
- How to extract real search value from your meta description.
What Is a Meta Description?
A meta description 是 meta tags 中的一个属性，它会描述你的页面. This snippet of text 有可能会出现在搜索引擎的结果中，位置就在标题的下面, 不过有的时候, 搜索引擎也会从页面主体的副本中抽取 a snippet of text.
You can find the meta description on any web page by right-clicking on the page and selecting "view source" or "view page source":
Once you're looking at the page's code, you'll likely see a meta description tag, which will probably look something like this:
<meta name="description" content="Meta descriptions can have a surprisingly large impact on your search marketing campaigns; find out how..." />
<meta name="keywords" content="meta description,google meta description,meta name description" />
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow" />This information has a few purposes, one of which is to serve as the snippet of text on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) when searchers perform a search query that your page ranks for. The meta description should give search engine users a brief description of what they'll find if they click through to your site.
So a search for "meta keywords" on Google might elicit a SERP listing like the following:
How Long Should a Meta Description Be?
Google recently expanded the standard length for meta descriptions. Formerly, meta descriptions were recommended to be 160 characters or less in length.
As of 2017, Google will show up to 275 characters on the SERP. Therefore, you should optimize your meta description tags to be up to 275 characters long.
Why Do Meta Descriptions Matter?
Meta description tags can have a significant impact on your search engine optimization efforts. The meta description has one 核心价值:
Your meta description acts as "organic ad text (广告文本)."
What this means is that when your 广告为了一个 keyword 竞价排名, Google and other engines will often show the meta description as a summary of the page.
This makes the meta description as important as ad text.
A compelling meta description has the power to raise the click-through rate of your organic search results (自然搜索的结果). That means more of the people who see your page in the search results will actually click through and land on your site. That means more traffic for you, even if your ranking stays the same!
How Can I Write Better Meta Descriptions?
The best practices for creating good meta descriptions are a lot like those for writing great ad text:
- Use researched, targeted keywords in your meta descriptions.
- Make sure they're hyper-relevant to the content on each page; never use the same meta description across your whole site.
- Communicate benefits and urgency.
- Compel users to click to showing them value and appealing to emotion.
For more help with meta tags, SEO, and CTR (Click-Through-Rate), check out these additional resources:
- Check to make sure your meta description isn't too long with a SERP preview tool
- Read our SEO basics guide
- Learn how to optimize your organic CTR