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    4. Should the Product Name/Keyword be first in meta description?

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    Should the Product Name/Keyword be first in meta description?

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    • IcarusSEO
      IcarusSEO last edited by

      I'm writing my meta descriptions for my products.

      Right now I have it as

      <product name="">at <company name="">and a brief description.</company></product>

      However, I was wondering if I put a word in front of the <product name="">such as "Wholesale". So for example</product>

      Wholesale <product name="">at <company name="">.......</company></product>

      Is that advisable? Or should the product name always be the first word?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Nigel_Carr
        Nigel_Carr @ThompsonPaul last edited by

        You're right Paul - I was talking about the title.

        The description is your call to action.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ThompsonPaul
          ThompsonPaul last edited by

          Where the words are in a meta-description is not a ranking factor, Icarus. Think of meta descriptions as your opportunity to make a mini sales pitch for your page on the search results page.

          You'll want to use the primary keywords that explain what the page is about, as that just makes sense, but artificially forcing them to be the first words can make the meta-description look very spammy and artificial in many cases.

          There is a benefit to having the words in the meta description that your visitor actually searched for, as they will show up in bold in the description, but remember they'll also be showing in bold in the page title too, so overdoing/forcing it can contribute to looking artificial, which can turn visitors off.

          Also to keep in mind, especially after last week's Google change to longer meta-descriptions, is that Google will often change the meta description if they think the one you wrote isn't a good match for the searcher's query. So keeping them effectively descriptive of the page, instead of keyword-stuffed, and having a good call-to-action in the description is still your best bet.

          In your specific example, if the page is primarily about the wholesale distribution of that product, it makes perfect sense to include that in the description. Whether those should be the first words depends entirely on whether you can write a natural-sounding description text that way. I often use such words to expand on what the page is about in a way that often can't be effectively handled in the much shorter, more restrictive page title.

          Hope that helps?

          Paul

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ThompsonPaul
            ThompsonPaul last edited by

            This is relatively true for page title, but the OP is asking about meta-descriptions.

            Nigel_Carr 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Alick300
              Alick300 last edited by

              Hi,

              No that is not mandatory. You can use that one which gives detailed idea of your products/services.

              Thanks

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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