How can I best optimize only meta descriptions for an ecommerce?
-
Recently, a client ask me for a total change of all the meta descriptions in his website. For the moment, this is the only work he want to do in his website. I said him about the difficulty about doing SEO only optimizing some parts of the whole, but he didn´t care. He only wants to change meta descriptions! That's right, it's up to you!
The website is about supplements for bodybuilding and fitness. Each category of the ecommerce deals with a type of product: testosterone boosters, protein powders, weight gainers, etc.
And now my question is: Should I choose different keywords for each category of products, or the same keywords for the whole website?
I started choosing the same general keywords for homepage and nav, and category related keywords for categories and products. Doing well?
Thanks.
-
If you consider the meta-description field "important as a ranking factor," you're simply incorrect, I'm afraid. It can have an extremely small effect inasmuch as it impacts click-through rate and pogosticking, but there are about 8,000 better things you could do that would make a bigger splash than optimizing meta-descriptions.
If this is what your client wants, by all means go for it, but make sure they understand that this will not change their rankings significantly.
-
You are most welcome. Yes, you are so right. If you demonstrate your expertise, even if it's just something small, within his budget, you will gain his trust (one hopes). If not, and he tries to take advantage of your expertise (and generosity), then it might be time to move on to a more appreciative client.:-)
-
Thanks for your reply!
Although I consider meta description important as ranking factor (at the end, bots read what the website is about), I'm changing titles too because I found really bad work done on them. And I find the same problem: what keywords to choose in each case.
Thanks again.
-
Thanks for your help! Of course, I can feel free to change any element I consider it deserves to change, but, of course, that means more work for me for the same budget. The key is to convince him about my work in order to get hired to do more. Thanks again.
-
Meta descriptions have no impact on rankings and are more of a marketing tool than SEO optimization. Let your client know that and his opinion about what to work on for SEO might change. Title tags are the most important thing you should be optimizing.
So, think of the meta description tag as an advertisement that should be written to entice the user to click to your site. Usually a question or call to action works best. Having the main keyword in there is not a bad idea because it makes the page seem like it is going to me more relevant for what they just searched for since Google will highlight that instance of the keyword in your meta description.
Meta descriptions should all be unique so be sure to add enough unique identifiers so you don't wind up creating tons of duplicate tags.
-
Hi Sergio. Yes, I think you are on the right track. I would make the keyword research, and any resulting changes to the Meta descriptions, target things specifically by category and then products.
I understand your frustration. Perhaps you can convince him to try one small thing in addition to the meta descriptions (hopefully of your choice), so you can show him a positive impact from something that could have a bigger impact. Just a thought!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can someone please take a peek at this?
I used to rank really high for the phrase "characteristics of down syndrome" for this post: https://noahsdad.com/physical-characteristics/ but not I've lost almost all traffic to the post. Even if you search for "characteristics of down syndrome Noah's Dad" the post doesn't seem to come up. I have no idea what is going on. If someone has a few minutes to take a look it would be very helpful. Also, I have lost almost all organic traffic to my site. I used to get close to 100,000 visits a month from organic traffic and now I'm getting 3k or so. So almost all of it is gone. I'm hoping whatever is going on with this post can be figured out so I can address and fix all of the other pages as well. Thanks so much for your time.
Keyword Research | | NoahsDad1 -
What is the best keyword tool for 2013?
Since the change in Google's keyword tool I have found it frustrating to use in finding new keywords. Which keyword tool would you recommend? Many thanks.
Keyword Research | | WSIDW0 -
How do I find out what low-volume keywords are best to target?
Since many of our products and services are purpose-built for a niche community, I find that many of the keywords I am researching are all low-volume. Data on the Keyword Difficulty Tool show '0' under Bing Search Volume (exact match). I know what my competitors are targeting based on their title tags and web content, but I'm not sure if they did their keyword research homework, so I don't want to assume. Is there any other way to determine which keywords I should be targeting?
Keyword Research | | ULCRobotics0 -
How can I "target keywords"?
Hello everyone, Could you please explain how can I "target keywords"? So from my understanding, I do a research on keywords, then find those which I can rank for easily, and then what? Do I build links to my website pages with these keywords? Or do I create different articles on the website with this keyword?
Keyword Research | | moneywise_test0 -
Plural vs singular keyword usage - on-page optimization
The on-page report card appears to include both plural and singular versions of keywords in reporting the keywords within the body, which results in a keyword stuffing warning. My question is, is it truly keyword spamming to use over 15 instances of a keyword that is spread across plural and singular versions of the keyword? If keywords are lumped together this way by Google's algorithms, why do pages rank differently for singular and plural versions of the same keyword?
Keyword Research | | nathan_lg0 -
On Page Optimization
Hey its question time for me today.....lol, I an using the SEOmoz On Page Optimization Tool and so far I have optimized my home page for one term"web design edinburgh" started at an F now its an A (Good Boy!) So I wasn wondering what poeples views were on the best way to do this? What I was thinking about doing was optimizing my site for 1 main Keyword/ Phrase per page. For instance Home Page - Keyphrase - "web design edinburgh" Web Design Page - "Web Development" not sure to make it" web development" or "web development edinburgh" SEO page - "Search Engine Optimisation" and so on........ So I would end up with a potential of say 6 landing pages each optimised for a certain keyword/phrase! Is this a good idea, or is there a better method I could employ? Thanks for sharing again. Kind Regards, Craig Fenton IT
Keyword Research | | craigyboy0 -
What Tools Can Be Used To Determine Kw's I Should Be Optimizing For ?
What Tools Can Be Used To Determine Kw's I Should Be Optimizing For ? My concern is that I may be optimizing certain pages with wrong kw phrases and building backlinks to wrong kw phrases that are not a good conversion keyword for the services that I am selling. What are the various ways and tools that can be used to determine if I am optimizing for the right kw's phrases and not the wrong ones that will not convert into a lead from the optin form. I am wondering if ppc spy tools such as spyfu, semrush help me identify if I in fact am opitimizing for the right kw's ?
Keyword Research | | helpwanted0