How to add a meta de­scrip­tion in WordPress

The content of your website should be ac­cess­ible and easy to find. One simple option to generate new traffic and help customers or readers navigate to your site is to add a suitable meta de­scrip­tion. WordPress provides several options to add them. Read on to find out what they are, why a meta de­scrip­tion is important, and what you should consider when writing one.

Even if you’re unsure what a meta de­scrip­tion is, you’ve likely come across them. When using a search engine like Google, search results are usually displayed with a meta de­scrip­tion below the title of a page. The short text offers a preview of what you can expect when you visit the cor­res­pond­ing page. When you write your own meta de­scrip­tion in WordPress, you increase the chances that readers will visit your site. While a website title provides little space for more detailed in­form­a­tion on what a page is all about, a WordPress meta de­scrip­tion provides more in­form­a­tion and acts like free ad­vert­ising in that way.

Generally, it’s easy to add meta de­scrip­tions in WordPress. If you do this con­scien­tiously and follow a few other SEO tips, your website can be found more fre­quently in searches, will perform better in rankings, and reach the visitors your site is intended for. An in­form­at­ive, succinct WordPress meta de­scrip­tion can be an advantage over com­pet­it­ors.

4. Write your meta de­scrip­tion for your WordPress page. The plugin signals when you have reached the correct length. When the strip turns green, the de­scrip­tion has the optimal number of char­ac­ters.
5. You can perform this step not only for all new posts, but also for existing pages. It is re­com­men­ded to add a meta de­scrip­tion to every post in WordPress if possible.

Yoast SEO lets you add default meta de­scrip­tions. In this way, every time you create a new post, the default de­scrip­tion is auto­mat­ic­ally added. Select ‘Search Ap­pear­ance’ and then ‘Content Types’ in the bar on the left below ‘SEO’. Create the ap­pro­pri­ate text according to the above procedure and save it as default. If you forget to add a WordPress meta de­scrip­tion or do not wish to formulate a de­scrip­tion, the default text will be used.

Using a plugin like Yoast to create a meta de­scrip­tion in WordPress is by far the simplest re­com­men­ded solution. You can add meta de­scrip­tions without using a plugin but the process is more cum­ber­some and time-consuming. To do so you’ll need to change your theme files.

1. Before you create a WordPress meta de­scrip­tion without a plugin, be sure to back up your page. This way, any errors won’t have a serious impact on your website and can be undone.
2. To add a de­scrip­tion, head to the ‘Tagline’ option via general settings and create the meta de­scrip­tion for your WordPress page.
3. Now switch to the theme editor and the menu item ‘Ap­pear­ance’, click on ‘Theme header’ and insert the following code between and :

Your meta de­scrip­tion will now be applied to every WordPress post. While this option is better than adding no meta de­scrip­tion at all, its sub­op­tim­al for boosting traffic to your site. You could add a de­scrip­tion for each in­di­vidu­al post, but you should have strong pro­gram­ming skills, otherwise you could com­prom­ise the func­tion­al­ity of your website. The safest, easiest, and ul­ti­mately most con­veni­ent way to add meta de­scrip­tion is using a plugin like Yoast SEO.

Although meta de­scrip­tions do not impact the ranking of a website, they shouldn’t be neglected. On the contrary! For one thing, de­scrip­tions ideally contain the most important keywords, which has a positive effect on SEO. A good meta de­scrip­tion is one reason why people click on a search result in the first place. If the de­scrip­tion shows that the cor­res­pond­ing website offers the required in­form­a­tion, it increases the chances of users nav­ig­at­ing to your site.

So what does a good meta de­scrip­tion in WordPress look like? The answer depends entirely on the type of website. If you run a blog and wish to attract readers, you’ll need a different approach than an online store or a corporate website. A few basic tips that are common to all website types are:

1. Your meta de­scrip­tion should contain your focus keywords. This way, in­ter­ested users know roughly what in­form­a­tion they can expect. There are various free tools available to determine the ap­pro­pri­ate keywords.
2. The meta de­scrip­tion of your WordPress page should be written well. Be succinct and highlight the most important in­form­a­tion. Try to an­ti­cip­ate and answer potential reader questions. Although duplicate content plays only a minor role for the ranking, it looks more pro­fes­sion­al if high-quality pages also have suitable, unique de­scrip­tions.
3. The length of a meta de­scrip­tion matters in WordPress. If you use too many char­ac­ters, the search engine preview simply cuts off the text. Too short a text, on the other hand, can seem like you don’t have much to say. To make matters worse, previews are shorter on smart­phones than on desktop. When you create your meta de­scrip­tions with Yoast SEO, for example, the plugin auto­mat­ic­ally high­lights the optimal length.
4. End your de­scrip­tion with a call-to-action. ‘Learn more!’ or ‘Order now!’ indicates that more content is waiting on your page and gets users to click faster.

If you intend to boost traffic to your site, it would be wise to add thought­ful meta tags. In WordPress the easiest way to add meta de­scrip­tions is by using a plugin. Meta de­scrip­tions make websites look more pro­fes­sion­al and help to generate more traffic.