Squarespace Meta Descriptions: What You Need to Know
Creating meta descriptions is just one piece of Squarespace SEO that you want to be aware of when trying to optimize your website.
First, let’s talk about what the heck a meta description is.
In Squarespace, this is the same as the SEO description.
SEO, if you’re not familiar, stands for search engine optimization. In short, it’s how you change the content and technical pieces of your website and blog to maximize its potential of ranking high in search engines like Google.
A meta description is the information that is shown in the Google search results for a website page. The purpose of meta descriptions is to the give the searcher an overview of what they can expect from clicking on the link.
Many people think this impacts ranking, but in fact it does not. After working in the SEO industry, this a common thought that gets passed around the online business world.
“Google announced in September of 2009 that neither meta descriptions nor meta keywords factor into Google's ranking algorithms for web search.
Meta descriptions can however impact a page's CTR (click-through-rate) on Google which can positively impact a page's ability to rank.
For that reason, among others, it's important to put some effort into meta descriptions.” (source: Moz)
So, just as Moz said, write for the user.
Which leads me to...
How to write a meta description
If you don’t add your SEO description manually, Google will pull random sentences from the page, which can look a little wonky.
You want to keep your meta descriptions to 160 characters or less. This is because anything longer could get cut off in the Google search results.
You want to keep this section to 1-2 sentences, and simply describe what the page is about.
Try to add an action word, like “learn,” “view,” or “click here” so that you’re giving someone an actual call to action to click through.
Changing a Squarespace site meta description
Also known as your SEO site description, this represents your homepage.
Adding a meta description to your website homepage is different than the individual pages of your website.
You can change this under Marketing - SEO - SEO site description.
Once you add in your meta description, Squarespace will give you a preview of how it will look in the Google search engine results page.
Here is my website meta description
Changing a Squarespace page meta description
Your page meta descriptions are the same as your SEO description.
You want to add a meta description to every page and blog post of your Squarespace website, and this is done differently than the one for your website as a whole.
You can change this by going under Pages and then clicking the gear icon next to the page you want to add the meta description to.
Click SEO and enter the meta description in the box. Make sure you click Save.
Index pages
If you use Squarespace index pages on your website, you might be wondering about how meta descriptions work for the individuals pages stacked inside index pages.
Because it’s uncommon for those pages to rank on their own in Google, you don’t need to worry about adding meta descriptions to them. But because it is possible for Google to show them in search, it may be something to consider doing.
But personally, I recommend just sticking with the main page.
There ya have it!
That’s how you optimize your Squarespace website’s meta descriptions.
Have questions or comments about adding or changing meta descriptions?
Drop them below!
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