Google Docs Meta Descriptions: Are They Effective?

Correctly filling in the meta tags on the site is very important for the SEO promotion of the site. Therefore, when developing the site, you must immediately consider that the meta tags are displayed on every page in the code, are filled everywhere, and can edit the meta tags on every page.

Correctly filling in the meta tags promotes low-frequency queries. One of the basic rules for filling SEO tags is their uniqueness on the site: there should be no duplication of meta tag values on any page. The absence of basic meta tags on the page hurts promotion.

Meta tags are elements of HTML markup that contain information about the site page. They are between the head tags in the title of the page. They are not required – the site can operate normally without them, and pages will open. But the meta tags are needed to promote. They address search engines when processing requests: bots understand what information is contained on the page and whether it satisfies users.

Description – a 155-160 character tag that describes the page’s content. When a page’s many qualities, including the Description, contain keywords, search engines display it in search results.

Unlike the title tag, the description element isn’t a ranking component; search engines ignore it when calculating a site’s position in search results. Nevertheless, it has a significant impact on the perception of the user. The higher the possibility of switching to a link, the more accurate the text in it relates to the request. As a result, the CTR rises, and behavioral traits improve.

The user can see the Description in a snippet – a block that summarizes the page’s contents in search results. Keywords from the query are shown in bold.

How Should the Description Be to Interest the User?

• User interest is piqued. Use Description if you’re writing a description for a storefront page or a website that sells services. This will assist in demonstrating the client’s advantages. At the same time, be descriptive, instructive, and offer data and facts that will pique the user’s interest; include a call to action. This strategy improves the persuasiveness of the Description. Consider the following two examples: “We can evaluate your site and determine its parameters,” and “Analyze your site and determine its parameters.” The second one includes a call to action. If “analyze the site” is an important term that you want to highlight in bold in the findings, rephrase it.

• Do not be afraid to inflect words in the keys. Search engines consider low-quality text with inconsistent words in sentences. They understand word forms, so they write naturally;

• Follow technical guidelines. Try to keep within 120-200 characters so that the Description of the page is displayed in full. It is desirable that Description was a keyword. However, this will not affect the position in the extradition but may influence the user’s decision to go to your site. In the output results, keywords will be highlighted in bold as if prompting the user that he will find the information you need on this site.

Why Write Description

There is no hard and fast rule to adding tags. And without them, your site will be indexed and somehow ranked. But if your goal – the top of extradition, every little thing in the sum gives an advantage. Title and Description – this is the bait for users. Their purpose is to catch the attention and interest. Make a person go from search to the page is your site.

For what SEO specialists use description tags? It directly affects the CTR – clickability of the site. Then the behavioral factors are connected: if the Description corresponds to the content on the page, the user remains on the site. The search engine understands that the resource meets expectations and raises its position.

It is more difficult with portals, where content is updated by many employees and sometimes by users who often have no idea what meta descriptions are and why they are needed. Unfortunately, the search engine does not divide sites into large and small, and the quality requirements for all areas are the same. This means that optimization is necessary for any site, whether we want it. 

Today, almost all CMSs have special modules that allow you to fill in meta descriptions automatically. Recently, Google Docs has also added such a feature. 

Description, when you fill the meta description, is often not taken in the calculation. It is left blank – this should not be done. If you decide not to fill the Description, it is better not to display it in the page’s code. But this – an extreme case, it is better to set up auto-generation for this attribute. 

Autogeneration uses artificial intelligence. In contrast to the title tag, where the title serves as a donor, for Description, the system uses all the text by default. 

To make the correct algorithm for auto-generation, it should divide all site pages into specific categories. Then, the rules are given autogeneration for each class based on this type’s standard text structure. Previously, to avoid wasting time and not investing effort, I used the introductory part of the text (the first 200 characters). But every site is unique, so there may be exceptions. 

For example, product pages in the online store are better to use as a product characteristic. A competent programmer can configure the module so that any part of the text opens in Description. We have to make sure that the section we use as a donor shows the essence of the page as fully as possible. 

The Incorrect Way to Autogenerate Description

An incorrect way to auto-generate Description, a common occurrence, is to duplicate the title. Instead, the title and description should be different from each other. 

If users create the content, add two mandatory fields in the form to add a page: title and Description, setting the rules for filling them: 

• title and Description must be different from each other;
• description – not less than 100 and not more than 200 characters.

Errors in Writing Description

The primary and most frequent mistake in writing a descriptor – is its absence. If you ignore the meta tags, instead of the title of the snippet user will see the URL. And instead of a succinct description, the text is pulled up from the page. 

The remaining errors are less fatal but essential little things in the competition for clickability snippets. Here are some of them:

• Write contact information in the meta tag. Define meta description is needed for a succinct description of the essence of the content. There is no need to waste precious characters on your company’s addresses and phone numbers. This information can be pulled into a snippet in another way. Sign up for Google’s My Business. Directory, fill in all the items there, and the information you need with passwords-blanket-recalls will show up in the snippet;

• Duplicate Title. The title is the title, and the Description is the Description that reveals the essence of the title. If you duplicate the title in the Description, you are wasting precious space on the page

• Unoriginal meta tags. Each meta tag describes a specific page, so the text must be unique.

• Overspamming with keys. Over-spam is unacceptable in all types of text content, including meta tags. Description – this is readable text, bringing the essence of the page to the user, not a stupid enumeration of the keys;

• Absence of keys. But entirely without the keys can not. At least one needs to fit into the beginning of the Description organically;

• Bulky language. Seeing rich text in a snippet, the user is unlikely to want to click on a link. Keep your writing light, keep your vocabulary and syntax simple;

• There is no point in writing irrelevant information. Young SEOs think this will help increase clickability, but they don’t calculate the next move in the game. The user, seeing a fancy description, will click on the link to the site. He considers some nonsense instead of the promised mountains of gold and quickly runs away. It is clear that on your site, it will never come back. But that’s not even the saddest part. Mass rejections will bring down behavioral factors, which are now considered by search engines to be the main factors for ranking.

How to Create a Good Meta Description

One of the most straightforward ways to write a proper description for the site is to imagine yourself in the user’s shoes. Think about what he is looking for and what mentions he will immediately respond to.

Study the market and competitors’ descriptions. Look at what makes your product or service stand out from the competition, and use these advantages when creating your Description.

It is vital to convey your thoughts in straightforward language and be interesting for users. The end of the Description should be beautiful, emotionally catchy, or contain some intrigue.

Just one well-formulated sentence, phrase, or keyword convinces the user to click your link. For example, if the client has just crashed his phone and urgently needs to replace the screen, the phrase glass replacement for 1 hour in front of the client will be a decisive argument in your favor.

Remember that it is not necessary to have descriptions on all pages, although it is preferable. Furthermore, the means to automate the creation of a unique report is not complicated.

However, where there are no descriptions, the search engine generates them on its own from the page content and often does it no worse than a copywriter. Descriptions are needed primarily for the home page and those sections of the site aimed at high traffic and accumulating organic traffic.

Identify the ten most essential and popular pages on your site and determine:

• Whether they have a description;
• How it aligns with your product;
• Is it persuasive enough for customers.

If you see that the Description can be improved, by all means, do so. If the company sells products and services, deciding on a snippet concept is straightforward. It should talk about the product and all the things that help sell it.

Descriptions for personal pages or a company that promotes services for B2B are a bit more complicated. An emphasis on the individual or company brand is recommended. Descriptions for any pages need to demonstrate the uniqueness of the selling proposition or page content.

Feel free to repeat all of this several times on different pages because you don’t have to be subtle when creating descriptions. On the contrary, you need to hit users with sales pitches like a cannon.

It will be interesting to see how Google Docs handles descriptive meta tag generation. The goal is to make it easier for content creators to generate compelling SEO meta descriptions for their sites’ content. 

It’s not a flawless job, but it meets the standards you’d expect from Google. You’ve probably seen Google’s innovative system in action in Gmail, where it suggests answers to emails or prompts you to finish a sentence as you type.

Helpful tip: If you actively use google files, you should actively use tags. Just add tags to google drive folders, and you can navigate your documents better, especially if you have a lot of them. The larger your google drive metadata database, the greater your need to apply tags. But these are entirely different tags and should not be confused with page descriptions for Google.

How to Search in Google Docs

Google Docs is used to create documents. However, people don’t think of it as an SEO tool. Just click the + button next to Summary in Google Docs if you’re having trouble creating an attractive meta description for your site’s content. Descriptions that are created automatically are not perfect. However, they are a great way to save time.

Even if you don’t use a Google-generated description (for example, because it’s wrong, long, or has another flaw), knowing that you need to do another, a more thorough evaluation of your content can be helpful. This is an exciting piece of software that has appeared in Google Docs. Google Docs automatically generates description meta tags for you.  

Adding metadata to Google Docs can help create a descriptive, but only as a first step. Be prepared that Google Docs can’t develop an excellent description for you. Human analysis, intuition, and creativity are still needed at any rate.

Artificial intelligence is actively evolving. New technologies make life easier not only for ordinary users but also for SEO specialists. From this article, you learned that it is essential to make a competent meta-descriptor if you want it to bring results. You can and should take advantage of Google Docs. But note that you still need to manually refine and double-check the final result.