To be honest, I don't like meta descriptions much myself. It's hard to
summarize a descriptive webpage in a few words while still keeping all
the major keyword intact. But it has its uses nevertheless.
Do it right, or forget it!
OK, first thing's first, meta descriptions are not a ranking
factor. So sometimes, it is okay to ignore them. Often, there are a lot
of pages on a website or blog, and it can be really time-consuming to
sit through the process of writing a meta description for each one (not
to mention mind-numbing and boring!). So in such cases, it is okay to
omit a few pages.
What you should not be doing is, writing the same meta
description for a bunch of similar pages. I know you may have a lot of
pages to go through, and you're eager not to miss your favourite show on
TV, or hang out with your friends or family. But if you're gonna do it,
do it right. If Google finds duplicate meta description (which it
will), your content will be flagged, which might lead to a penalty.
Remember, it is fine if a page has no meta description. But if it does, it's very important that the description is unique.
Important considerations
Now that we know whether to add meta description to a page or not, it's
time to look at what it stands for. You can think of a meta description
as a means of advertising. It draws readers to a website from the SERP
and thus, is an extremely important part of search marketing. Crafting a
compelling meta description using important keywords can improve the
click-through rate (CTR) for your webpage. To maximize click-through
rates on search engine result pages, it's important to note that Google
and other search engines bold keywords in the description when they
match search queries.
So the more keyword-rich your meta description is, the better it looks
to the searcher. Remember that a snippet on a SERP can only show a
limited number of characters. Generally, this limit is set to 170
characters. You can add or take away a a few characters, but that's
really what you should be aiming for. Lower than the limit means you're
not utilizing your real-estate, and higher than the limit means your
characters are going to waste.
Also remember that the meta descriptions must not have any special
characters - not even quotes. Google cuts off any meta description with
quotes in it. So if you want your hard work to count, stick to
alphanumeric characters.
What if you don't add a meta description? Well, in that case, Google
will try to impute one for you using your content. Although not
optimized, this could do the job most of the times. But since it's an
automated system, there might be errors, and Google might pick up the
wrong content to show on the snippet. So make a point of checking the
meta descriptions for every important page on your site, and make sure
it is what you wanted, and not something that looks spammy or
auto-generated to a user.
Which brings me to the last point. A lot of Blogger users don't have
meta descriptions turned on. This is the 'Search Description' field in
the Blogger post editor, and can be turned on by going to your Blogger
settings. If you haven't turned on this option, make sure you do it now -
you've been missing out on a lot! All the best :)