Before 2017 came to an end, Internet users have noticed that Google SERP displayed longer meta descriptions. While there had been various discussions in 2015 whether this strategy is competitive or not, more sightings of meta descriptions with lengths double than the previous character limit continue to pop up this year. If you’re a local business owner in Denver who strives to maximize your SEO marketing strategies, then here are some key insights to know about this new trend.
Google confirmed in December 2017 that more characters are allowed to be used by online marketers in their meta descriptions. From the maximum limit of 160 back then, you would find descriptions ranging between 230 and 320 characters. If you are doing your research, you would see in SERP that most marketers, especially the local ones in Denver are taking advantage of the new length allowance to deliver more information about their businesses.
What are the important rules to follow?
While it’s true that Google still displays pre-set meta descriptions which are previously implemented by marketers, sticking to the 155-character limit can cause a disadvantage to your business. Compare yours with other companies taking advantage of the increased number of characters. If a user can view everything they want to know without needing to double check your website, then you are doing real business.
Google has previously announced that meta descriptions do not have a direct impact on the rankings of your keywords. It is mostly about influencing click-through-rate. Many large SEO tech firms conducted studies and experiment to see the effect of the longer character limit on keyword rankings and click-through-rate. Most of them recommend that the safest bet today is 300 characters. Going any longer and the snippet might get cut off.
Do not cash in blindly on more characters.
While most marketers in Denver see a positive change in using longer snippets, you should not jump blindly to catch up with your competitors. If you’re thinking of reaching the new limit, remind yourself never to take for granted the quality of your meta descriptions. They must appear valuable to your users which can encourage them to click. If your data appears long and yet useless, nothing will be left to drive the click to your business.
Make a priority list.
If your business still runs on the previous character limits, it’s time to sit down and reoptimize. Create a list of your most important pages which receive the highest number of search traffic. Expand the meta descriptions but never forget to use the space smartly.
Next, visit the SERP from which you receive the most traffic. These are the places where you mostly rank. Double check the limits and optimize somewhere. You can work safely between 250 and 300 characters. You have to update your meta description tags as well. From the old limit of 160 to 180 characters, your business will benefit on upgrading their lengths to 230 up to 320.
If you’re looking for a specialist in Denver who can help you with your snippet optimization. Then you can start by connecting with MojoSEO today!
