Meta descriptions are the text snippets of webpages you see in search results. They used to be an important ranking factor until not too long ago both Google and Yahoo! officially announced that they would no longer use Meta descriptions in their search algorithms. But latest developments in Google's search algorithm include Meta descriptions as a ranking factor once again.
No, the folks at Google did not back out of their decision to discount Meta descriptions as a ranking factor. Still, your blog´s or website´s search snippet can now significantly affect your rankings. Here is the low-down.
Google and Personalized Search Results
Shortly after New Year Google announced that they would be tailoring everyone's search results based on their search history even when users are not signed into Google. Personalized results are far from new on Google. The search giant has been customizing peoples SERPs (search engine results pages) for quite a while, but until now this only happened when you searched while signed into your Google account. Now, signed in or not everybody gets personal results. (Big brother is watching!)
How It Works
Whether you are signed in or not, all the searches you run on Google are stored in your browser cookies. The accumulated data is referred to as your 'Web History' and Google uses it to customize your search results. If you are not signed in, your ‘Web History’ will be stored for 180 days (!), then old data is replaced with new searches. If you are signed in, then there is no time limit and you can manage you ‘Web History’. Either way, the searches you run as well as the sites you visit will affect your future search experience.
The sites you visit more frequently will be pushed higher in the search result pages on related searches. For example, if you search for 'horror movies' and visit www.bloody-disgusting.com, next time when you search for 'new movies' you may see www.bloody-disgusting.com in the Top 10 results even if it does not rank there in the general impersonalized search. You can tell that your search results have been personalized by the 'View customization' link in the upper right hand corner.
The personalized search results can differ significantly from the general SERPs. I checked it out and ran a couple of tests searching for closely related keywords and clicking the same site each time. I also checked this site's rankings with a rank checker to get a list of impersonalized rankings for comparison. In one of the tests just a few click-throughs to a site pushed it up 31 positions on a highly competitive keyword. That was from the 38th position on page 4 straight to the 7th spot on the first page in the personalized search results (and I was not even signed in!).
How Meta Descriptions Can Affect Your Google Rankings
Although Meta descriptions are no longer (officially) part of Google´s ranking algorithm they will affect your site's positions in the personalized search results. Your Meta description is a crucial factor that has a huge influence on the CTR (click-through-rate) of your site in search results. The more compelling your description is, the more searchers will click it. When they click through to your site from search results this will be recorded in their ‘Web History’. Next time they search for a product or service related to your site, it may appear high up in their personalized search results.
Since everybody now gets personalized results, the effect your Meta descriptions have on your rankings can get really huge. That is another reason why you should invest some time and effort into testing and optimizing your Meta descriptions.
Optimizing Meta Descriptions
There is more than enough advice out there on writing compelling titles and descriptions (and there is even software available to do this for you), so I won't go into detail here. Just keep in mind one thing: Google does not always show the Meta description you provide. Sometimes it just compiles a random text snippet from your page that contains the keywords used in the query. But you can easily locate the keywords where your Meta description shows up by searching for them on Google.
Conclusion
There has been a lot of criticism pouring down on Google for introducing personal search to everybody. Quite a few people are worried about privacy issues. Others do not like it because the whole concept will only help the rich get richer while keeping the smaller sites out of the game. And some SEOs are just comlaining that this makes SEO success even harder to measure.
Although it may not be the best idea the folks at Google have come up with, I recommend you embrace it and run with it. And I suggest that you take this news as a call to action. A strong motivation to actually do something to help your SEO, your sales and your business. And that something is to take a look at your Meta descriptions. Go and find out how your blog or website appears in the search results and find ways to improve it. With personalized search or without it, having a catchy compelling text in your search results snippet will get you more clicks, more traffíc, more customers, and more money.
Good luck!
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