Meta descriptions, which are HTML snippets that summarize a page’s content and often appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), play an especially important role in search engine optimization (SEO). These small pieces of text can make a huge difference in your Shopify store’s traffic volume, conversion rate, and overall sales figures.
In this guide, we’ll cover every single thing you need to know about writing a Shopify meta description, including:
You may have heard that meta descriptions have no effect on where a page is listed on SERPs.
It’s true — back in 2009, Google clarified that they do not use meta descriptions to help determine their search rankings.
This is because meta descriptions were too easy to manipulate. In the early days of the internet, the methods that search engines used to set up their SERPs were much simpler. You really could improve your ranking by just inserting the right keywords into the meta description. People would often abuse this by adding keywords to their meta descriptions that had nothing to do with their on-page content, allowing them to attract extra traffic while bumping more relevant sites down the rankings in the process.
So, Google put a stop to this practice by making meta descriptions irrelevant to rankings.
But rankings aren’t the only thing that matters for SEO. There are also other metrics to consider, such as your clickthrough rate. And this is where meta descriptions can make quite an impact.
A high search ranking won’t do you much good if people tend to skip right over your listing. This is why you must pay attention to your clickthrough rate, which is the number of clicks your listing receives divided by the total number of times people see it, for any keywords that you care about. If your rate is low (the average clickthrough rate ranges from 39.8% for the top organic result to 1.9% for the ninth organic result), then something is wrong and you need to fix it.
It turns out that the meta description is the single most important part of a search listing when it comes to convincing visitors to click through to your site. You don’t need to take our word for it — when asked what has the most impact on their decision to click on a search result, 62.9% of online searchers said it was the description, compared to 24.2% who said the brand name and just 13.0% who said the title.
Meta descriptions act as a sort of advertisement, enticing people to visit your site by indicating that you will provide the exact content they’re searching for. Improving your meta descriptions will generate more traffic to your store from search engines, which in turn will lead to more sales.
Now that we’ve established the importance of well-written meta descriptions, let’s review what it takes to actually make your meta descriptions well-written.
The first thing you need to know is that, most of the time, Google won’t even use the meta description you provide. If Google’s search algorithm believes there’s content on your page that matches a given search query better than your meta description, they’ll feature that snippet of content in the listing instead. Specifically, Google rewrites meta descriptions around 70% of the time (71% on mobile and 68% on desktop).
While these automatic rewrites are often fine, they sometimes have some serious issues. For example, look at this snippet for the search query “lowe’s home page”:
With phrases like “Menu Link to Lowe’s Home Improvement Home Page”, this snippet doesn’t make a ton of sense as a page preview. The problem is that the words “home page” do not appear anywhere on the Lowe’s home page, so Google’s automatic rewrite ends up pulling in the alt text for an image on the page instead.
For better results, you should take control of your meta descriptions whenever possible.
Some of the most common reasons why Google might rewrite your meta description include:
So, all good meta descriptions are unique and use keywords sparingly. This will greatly improve the odds that your snippet becomes one of the 30% that doesn’t get automatically rewritten by Google.
The relevance part is trickier, as your page might have a decent ranking for many different search queries. It’s just not possible to account for everything — tweaking your meta description to make it more relevant to one query might make it less relevant to another.
For this aspect of your meta description, just focus on the one main keyword that you’re targeting. It’s inevitable that the snippet will be rewritten for at least a few queries (the same page can have many different snippets depending on what phrase the user plugs into the search bar).
Avoiding automatic rewrites is essential, but this is only half the battle. Even if you can get your meta description to show up in SERPs, you must know how to write persuasively in order to successfully convince people to click. Here are a few tips that will help you accomplish this goal:
You should think of your meta description like a 30-second ad or elevator pitch. Space is limited — in as few words as possible, make the case for why your search result is more worth the user’s time than any of their other options.
Do you provide particularly high-quality products? Astoundingly affordable prices? Cutting-edge features that your competitors aren’t able to offer? These are the sorts of details worth including in your meta description.
To see how this all ties together, check out Dearborn Denim’s snippet for the search query “made in usa jeans”:
The meta description reads “Dearborn Denim & Apparel offers the best in American-made men’s jeans — ethically produced and affordably priced. Click here to shop our site now!”
Isn’t that persuasive? You can see how all the advice listed above is reflected here: the meta description is written in active voice, highlights the top benefits to the customer, includes a clear call to action, and is displayed in full due to being under 160 characters in length (unlike many of the other listings on this SERP, which get cut off with an ellipsis).
The advice we’ve given so far applies to any kind of Shopify page. For more targeted tips on how to write meta descriptions for specific types of pages, consult the table below:
| Product pages | • Make sure each meta description describes an individual product, not your store as a whole, in order to avoid repetition/irrelevance and an automatic rewrite. • Remember, your meta descriptions should be treated like an advertisement. If you’re currently running any promotional deals for a product, such as 50% off or free shipping, this information is certainly worth including in your snippet. Everyone loves discounts — a good deal will help convince people to click. • Structured data can be used in snippets to add custom design elements. There are a lot of ways to use structured data for product pages in particular, as you can add flourishes like a star icon for your average customer rating and green bold text for your price. This will help you stand out from other listings and attract more attention. |
| Blog posts | • If the post was made recently, consider starting your meta description with the date of publication. This will ensure search engine users that it is not outdated, and therefore still worth reading. • Consider adding the author’s name to the front of your meta description as well, especially if they’re well-known and respected in your industry. • If you do add a date or byline, keep in mind that this will give you less room to work with for your description of the page content. To stay within 160 characters, you’ll need to be extra concise. |
| Homepage | • The meta description for your homepage can be quite difficult to write, as you need to summarize your entire brand rather than just a single product or blog post. Expect this to take more time and thought than any of your other pages. • For inspiration, look for reviews of your business on services like Google, Yelp, G2, etc. Any customer surveys you may have sent out in the past will be helpful as well. Do you notice any aspects of your products or shopping experience that are praised repeatedly? The details that impressed your previous customers the most are probably worth mentioning in your homepage meta description. |
Shogun makes it easy to add meta descriptions to your Shopify store.
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll first need to import the pages you want to edit from Shopify into Shogun:
Now that the page has been imported, you can add your meta description through Shogun’s visual editor:
