Your Business in 155 Characters?
One would think that most folks would easily be able to describe their business in 155 characters or less. Not the case. When working on setting up new sites, I give clients a bit of “homework” to get them thinking. One of these exercises includes describing their business in 155 characters or less.
50% of those I work with assume I mean 155 words and send an unreadable paragraph my way stuffed with every keyword they can think of. “She couldn’t mean 155 characters — how can you possibly describe a business in 155 characters or less?” It’s easy if you put your head in the right place. The place where you forget about trying to cover all the bases and instead think niche — short and sweat. You do have a niche don’t you?
Why 155 — not 150, not 160? Because 155 is where Google truncates your site’s meta description tag contents. So to be able to have a clear, concise and descriptive description in 155 characters or less means your entire desired description will display and not be cut off. You need to be pithy! By doing so you control the full description that will be displayed to searchers on Google.
In a world out of control — this is something you can control! How about that!?
For my sites I actually tend to use shorter more concentrated descriptions between 70-100 so that at a brief glance one knows what that page is about. And, I only concentrate on integrating one keyword phrase into my meta descriptions. Yep, just one — the one that specific site/post/page is most about!
When I write; I write about one topic. Unlike so many site owners who try to cover all the bases all the time. In there effort to try include every possible search term under the sun, they dilute their efforts.
See, the more you are about — in the “eyes” of the search engines — the less you are about any one thing. Which means you won’t rank highly for anything.
Use the 155 character guideline for every page on your site. Rewrite all your meta descriptions focusing on the one topic each page is most about. By making the meta description succinct to each specific page, you’ll find over time that each page in your site will stand on it’s own for that topic as a possible doorway to the rest of your site.
Yes you can use more than 155, however, searchers will only get a partial view of the full description and you won’t be as focused or concentrated with your terms. Remember, searchers have the attention span of a gnat. Put on your thinking cap so you can control and choose what they see by using the 155 guideline.
This is your opening to grab and wow them to click on your link over those listed above or below you!
At your service,
Judith
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