Digital Writing
Medium SEO Description & Meta Description
Spoiler alert: They're basically the same thing!
According to Medium:
The SEO Description is used in place of your Subtitle on search engine results pages.
You can see this in search snippets in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
But honestly, it took me a while to discover the SEO description settings from articles written by long-time Medium writers. I clearly should have explored Medium thoroughly when I first started writing on this platform.
Outside of the Medium realm, however, SEO description is commonly known as Meta description, which is a brief summary of a web page.
The Importance of Meta Description
The thing is, Meta description doesn't affect ranking. And despite its name, Medium SEO description doesn't really help to improve SEO.
A bit of a letdown, huh?
But this doesn't mean you should disregard it entirely.
Meta or SEO description is essential to increase the click-through rate (CTR) in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Therefore, increased CTR means more traffic!
I know writers in the Medium Partner Program may not find external traffic beneficial for earnings…
But hey, I'm sure you want your writing to reach as many readers as possible, right?
So putting a bit of effort into rewriting your default Medium article SEO description wouldn't cost you an arm or a leg.
What Makes a Good Meta/SEO Description
1. Unique Description For Every Web Page
If you're building a website, the Meta description for each page has to be more distinctive from the other.
For instance, a Contact page shouldn't have the same web page summary as your Homepage as both pages serve different purposes. Of course, this goes the same for SEO descriptions on Medium.
2. Include Keywords
No keyword stuffing, please! It has to make sense. Add the targeted keywords you collected from keyword research to the Meta/SEO description to boost visibility on organic searches.
3. Relevant to Your Content
Include compact information about the webpage. But depending on your content, you can also write it as a list besides writing in sentence format.
4. Choice of Words and Phrases for Magnetic Clicks
The search snippet is a browser's deciding moment to click on your webpage instead of the many similar contents on SERPs.
So the choice of words, phrases, and format are worth putting the time into. If you're into copywriting, it's also a great way to put that skill into practice.
5. Character Count
A Meta description should not exceed 160 characters for desktop view. Otherwise, Google would cut them out after the maximum character count.
But the character count for mobile viewing is only 120 due to the device's size.
Therefore, since organic searches are from different devices, it's best to squeeze all the essential information in the first 120 characters of your Meta/SEO description.
To Recap
✅ Medium SEO description is also known as Meta description.
✅ Meta/SEO description summarizes a web page in the search snippet.
✅ Meta/SEO description could increase organic search traffic by improving CTR on SERPs.
✅ A good Meta/SEO description includes:
- Unique description.
- Targeted keywords.
- Relevant to the content.
- Compelling choice of words and phrasings.
- Does not exceed the 160-character count.
- Include a web page's crucial detail on the first 120 characters.
So what are you waiting for? If you haven't customized the settings for your articles on Medium yet, do it now! Come up with the best description to appear on the search snippet by including the quick tips mentioned in this post.
All the best!
Are you new to keyword research, and trying to understand it just makes you want to break your laptop/Macbook/phone? I feel you! Check out this post ⬇⬇⬇:
Or, you're welcome to check out my other posts on Time To Write The Next Article about Digital and SEO writing:
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