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Meta descriptions

Search engines like Google use meta descriptions to show a summary of an article, for example:

.

Google doesn't always display exactly the meta description you provide, but if the meta description is good, Google is more likely to use it.

Good meta descriptions

  • Less than 160 characters
  • Gives the reader as much value as possible
  • Isn't clickbaity or trying to make the user read the article - if you can give the reader what they want in the meta description, that's fine
  • Doesn't include phrases like "read on for more." You only have two sentences - try to give the reader the main takeaway of the article.

How to set meta descriptions

In editors like WordPress and Medium, the meta description is often set up automatically with automatic summarization of the article draft. It's still good to manually write a meta description.

In HTML, use the <metadescription> tag in the <head> section.

Many static site generators use YAML front matter, for example:

---
title: This is my article
description: This is an article about foo bar baz
---

But this will depend on which static site generator (SSG) you're using.