Meta descriptions

[aplnzoctober18]

When writing a meta description is it ok to use keywords that are not on the page or site itself?

[Linda-Vassily]

You should write your description in a way that will make people want to click on your link when they see your description in the search results.

But be aware that Google won't necessarily pick your description to show—it shows what it thinks best matches what the searcher is looking for. If your description is heavy on keywords that are not on the page and does not contain words that reflect the content of the page, it probably won't get shown.

[effectdigital]

Not using the specific keywords which are embedded on a web-page is fine, writing a description which fails to accurately convey the individual (and unique) value of a web page is not fine.

Meta Descriptions no longer have a 'special place' within Google's various ranking algorithms and modules. A lot of people argue that at most, Meta Descriptions were only ever weighted as heavily as descriptive body content - and that in fact they never held any special ranking significance at all.

So why bother writing them at all? If they don't influence rankings, they won't influence your SEO right? WRONG

Meta Descriptions, if well written (if they seem to be thematically related to the specified page's content, if they're not overly promotional and they aren't full of grammatical errors) - are the most likely on-page element to be chosen to act as a SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) snippet within Google / Bing's search results. Basically, the descriptive text you see under each hyperlink in Google's results.

A Meta Description won't change your page's ranking position for a given keyword (well, maybe under some very niche circumstances - but it's not common). That being said; a Meta Description which is nicely written, may entice Google's users (or the users of another search engine) to click on your search result instead of another one on the same page.

As such, Meta Descriptions can help your existing rankings to work harder for you (without actually shifting rankings around!)

Meta Descriptions should be written with the sole purpose of enticing users to click through from Google's results to your site. Whether that involves using your on-page keywords, or using alternative keywords - or using no keywords at all, only you can know. Write Meta descriptions from a CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) perspective and not from an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) perspective.

You're trying to 'convert' Google's users, into your own SEO traffic. That off-site conversion is the key, not trying to use Meta Descriptions to increase your rankings (they won't alter your ranking positions)