How to create a 'search description' for your Blogger post
This post is for people who use Blogger.
It introduces you to a new Blogger feature that allows you to write individual summary descriptions for each of their blog entries.
It also discusses how this enhances the post's ranking in search engines, which may increase the number of visitors to your site via search as well.
Blogger now has new features.
Blogger has just added additional features to its blogging platform. There is also a new option in the new template to include a meta description for both the blog and each individual blog article.
Blogger has just added additional features to its blogging platform. There is also a new option in the new template to include a meta description for both the blog and each individual blog article.
The meta description describes your blog or post but does not appear on your blog. It does, however, appear in a search engine index entry for the post.
Various attempts by individuals to manipulate search engine rankings have resulted in some meta tags becoming far less influential than they once were - keywords being a prime example.
However, search engines still value meta descriptions, especially if they accurately represent the content of the post (eg text or the alt tags on an image)
Why should you summarize your blog post?
Prior to the installation of the new functionality, the snippets utilized for my indexed blog posts were usually either the opening sentence of the article or the labels/categories selected for the post.
This is one of the reasons I've always said that the first 200 characters of a post are the most crucial!
However, if YOU construct a'search description' for your blog post, YOU - not Google or other search engines - get to define how that content is summarized when it is indexed by a search engine. You are not left to the mercies or whims of various search engines!
To put it another way, if you want people to visit your site, YOU may now define the best method to describe your post in Google. This will increase the likelihood of visitors following the link in the search results and visiting your blog as a result of finding what they were looking for. As a result, your blog's traffic may increase.
However, the description is only effective if it accurately captures the substance of the blog post, for example, by repeating words used in the text.
How to describe a blog postHow to describe a blog post
The first stage is only required once because it activates the description functionality and assigns a description to the blog.
The second stage refers to the blog post description and must be completed for each individual post you wish to describe.
Contents of ? button next to "Description"
Stage 1: Enable the meta description functionality in Blogger
You should look at your Blogger blog's dashboard.
Navigate to "Settings."
Click the "search preferences" button.
Look for "Meta Tags." This should be the default option, indicating that the description is deactivated.
Click the "edit" button next to "Description."
To enable search description functionality, click the "Yes" option.
Create a meta description for your blog in no more than 50 characters. (If you wish to check, use Letter Count - set to the character option.) This is the description that will show on your home page - an example is provided below.
Click the 'Save Changes' button.
EXAMPLE: I reduced the strapline beneath the title of Travels with a Sketchbook to produce this 150-character explanation.
Extra! For those who want to know more about site description check out Google's Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide (pdf). This is what it has to say about "best practice"
Accurately summarize the page's content
If users viewed your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result, provide a description that would both inform and intrigue them.
Avoid: writing a description meta tag that has no link to the page's content using generic descriptions such as "This is a web page" or "Page about baseball cards" filling the description with solely keywords copying and pasting the entire text into the description meta tag
and
Avoid:using a single description meta tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages
Please let me know if you choose to attempt enabling this functionality and how you got on with the instructions.
