Blog Descriptions: The Beginner's Guide With Examples

Want to boost your search traffic? Write compelling blog descriptions.

If you’re struggling to increase your traffic from Google, you should start focusing on the basics first.

The SEO basics like having a compelling blog description and writing effective meta descriptions for your blog posts matter A LOT.

If you’re looking for a helpful guide on crafting perfect blog descriptions, this post is just for you.

In this post, we’ll talk about;

What is a blog description?
Difference between blog descriptions and blog post descriptions
Examples of great blog descriptions
How to write better descriptions for your blog (and blog posts) and much more

Are you ready? Let’s get into the details without much ado.

Blog Descriptions: Everything You Need to Know

What is a Blog Description?

A blog description is a snippet used to summarize a website’s content. Search engines display blog or website descriptions in search results to let visitors know what a blog is about before clicking on it.

Here’s an example of a blog description on our site.

Benefits of blog descriptions:

Blog descriptions offer you the following benefits.

Blog descriptions improve your website’s organic click-through rates (CTR)
They will create an impact on your website’s conversions and sales
They will improve your website’s indexing so you can rank higher on search results
They will help you attract target audience to your site

Difference Between Blog Description and Blog Post Description

There are typically two types of blog descriptions;

Blog description
Blog post description

Let’s talk about the difference between blog description and post description along with real-life examples.

1. Blog description: A blog description is a short summary of your blog’s homepage which appears below your site link in SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Here’s the example of a blog description;

As you can see above, the blog description appears right below the blog’s homepage.

2. Blog post description: A blog post description is a description of your individual blog post which appears below your blog post link in SERP.

Here’s the example of a blog post description;

As you can see above, the blog description appears right below the blog post’s title.

Did you know that pages with a meta description get 5.8% more clicks than those without a description?

So make sure to write a meta description for every blog post you publish.

5 Examples of Great Blog Descriptions

Looking for examples of great blog descriptions? Here’s a handpicked list of some of the best blog descriptions across various industries.

Example 1: Unsplash

Why it’s great?

Unsplash is one of the popular websites to download royalty-free images online. In just a few words, Unsplash’s blog description conveys what their website is all about. It also tells you why their platform is better than the others.

Example 2: Udemy

Why it’s great?

Udemy is probably the #1 platform for learning and teaching various skills. It has a powerful blog description where it conveys the number of courses along with the students who use their platform. Also, it includes what type of courses you can discover on their website.

Example 3: Codeacademy

Why it’s great?

Codeacademy is an online interactive platform that offers free coding classes worldwide. Its blog description includes the number of users using their platform along with a benefit (getting a job you want).

Example 4: PicMonkey

Why it’s great?

PicMonkey is a powerful photo editor and its description includes what you can do with their software. It’s simple yet compelling enough for people to click on their website link.

Example 5: YNAB (You Need A Budget)

Why it’s great?

YNAB is a popular budgeting software and it uses powerful words in its blog’s description to convey to its users to get out of debt and save money. It clearly shows you the “Why” of using their software.

How to Write a Powerful Description for Your Blog or Website?

So to create an effective blog description? Here are some of the best ways to write a click-worthy description for your blog or website.

First things first: install an optimization plugin like Rank Math. It also has a free version which is incredible.

Rank Math SEO plugin provides an option to easily write and edit your blog’s homepage description.

Once you install the Rank Math plugin, go to Titles & Meta and click on the Homepage tab.

Here’s how it looks like;

As you can see above, you’ll see a homepage title and homepage meta description for your blog where you can add a description for your blog.

5 tips for creating a powerful description for your blog

Here are 5 amazing tips to create a compelling description for your blog or website.

1. Explain what your blog is about: Blog description length is typically between 120 to 158 characters, up to 920 pixels. So you need to explain what your site is all about within those characters.

Analyze your competitors’ websites. Learn how authority websites in your industry are crafting their blog descriptions. Take inspiration and write your blog description.

Here’s a perfect example of such a blog description;

As you can see above, ProBlogger explains what their blog is all about within a few characters in its blog description which is really compelling.

2. Include your primary keywords: You must add your main keywords in the blog description naturally. That’s how search engines like Google will understand what your site is all about.

Have a look at the “Cup of Jo” (popular lifestyle blog) blog’s description.

As you can see above, the Cup of Jo’s blog’s description includes several keywords that are all relevant to their blog. Similarly, you too can add highly relevant keywords in your blog description to attract more search visitors to your site.

3. Display your expertise: One of the best ways to make your blog’s description unique and powerful is to expose your expertise.

Here’s an example of Tim Ferriss’s blog description where he shows his expertise of being an investor for BIG companies like Facebook, Uber, Twitter, etc.

If you read it carefully, you’ll also notice that Tim mentions being an author of the FIVE New York Times bestsellers.

4. Include benefits: If you want to entice your target audience with your blog description, make sure to add benefits.

Answer “What’s in it for them after visiting your blog”.

What are the benefits they’re going to get after landing your blog? If you can add benefits concisely in your blog description, you’ll attract more visitors from Google.

Quora (which is the world’s #1 Question & Answer platform) probably has the best blog description;

As you can see above, Quora shows the benefits of using their platform. If you’re someone who’s looking to gain and share knowledge, you should probably create an account on Quora.

5. Add credentials: If you already have an online presence or a huge following, you should definitely add those credentials in your blog description. Adding credentials definitely helps you stand out from others.

Semrush does it best;

As you can see above, Semrush is sharing the credentials of its users (which is trusted by over 7 million marketers worldwide).

How to Write a Compelling Blog Post Description?

Want to learn how to write powerful blog post descriptions that get more clicks and traffic to your website?

Here are some of the proven ways to create great meta descriptions for your blog posts.

Use questions: We often use questions while writing descriptions for our blog posts. They often work like a charm as they create instant curiosity.

Here’s an example;

As you can see above, we’re using a question in our blog post’s description to get more clicks.

Use power words: One of the best ways to entice your blog visitors with your blog post description is to use power words.

Power words are enticing and descriptive words that trigger a positive or negative emotional response.

Some of the power words include;

outstanding
killer
effective
compelling
free
deals
exciting

Don’t use clickbait: Most people use clickbait headlines within their blog post descriptions to attract more clicks and traffic.

Unfortunately, clickbait headlines mislead your website audience as they contain misleading wording instead of using the right words that are relevant to the content.

ALWAYS write descriptions that match your content. NEVER trick your audience into clicking your link by using clickbait headlines.

Implement structured data: If you want to create persuading blog post descriptions, implement structured data.

Structured data uses a predefined schema that helps search engines easily understand the information provided on a web page.

The most common types of structured data meta tags include star ratings for product reviews, business names, addresses, and more.

Here’s an example of a start rating powered by structured data;

You can use plugins like Rank Math to easily implement structured data on your blog. You can also read this guide from Rank Math to learn more about it.

How to Include Your Primary Keywords in the Blog Description for High CTR?

What’s the BEST way to get more traffic to your blog posts from search engines? Here are some of the proven ways to get better results with your blog descriptions.

Include your primary keyword in meta descriptions

Your meta descriptions matter a lot.

The meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a web page.

Make sure to include your target keywords while creating meta descriptions for your blog posts.

How can you do that?

Firstly, perform keyword research for every blog post you write.

Come up with at least ONE primary keyword and multiple secondary keywords so you can include them while writing blog post descriptions.

If you’re curious, here’s a beginner’s guide on finding better keywords like a pro.

Once you have a list of primary and secondary keywords to target, you need to include them within your content including blog post meta descriptions.

You can install a free SEO plugin like Rank Math (we use the same) to optimize your blog posts and pages.

Include your targeted keywords in the title

A title tag is the title of a web page that the search user sees in the search results which is displayed as part of the search snippet.

Here’s how a title tag looks like;

Here are some quick tips to optimize your title tags.

Make sure to use unique title tags. Do a quick search on Google to find whether your title is totally unique or not.
Put your most important keyword first in the title tag.
NEVER stuff keywords in your title tags. They should look natural and appeal to your target audience.
Watch your title length. Google usually displays the first 50 to 60 characters of a title tag. So stay within that limit.
Avoid using the title tag for the page title. The title tag is displayed in search results whereas the page title is unique which is displayed on your blog post.

FAQs About Blog Descriptions

Here are some of the frequently asked questions around blog descriptions.

What is a blog description?

A blog description is a quick summary of what your blog is about. Blog description is the text that appears below your website link in search engine results.

How many characters should a blog description be?

A blog description should be approximately 150 characters in length.

Where does your blog’s meta description appear?

Your blog’s description appears directly under your meta title on the search engine page when a user searches for your website.

What’s the best tool for writing meta descriptions?

If you’re using WordPress, make sure to install an optimization plugin called Rank Math which is free to use. It helps you easily write and edit descriptions for your blog and individual posts.

Are blog post descriptions important?

Yes, blog post descriptions have many benefits including;

– Helps you with better CTR (click-through rates)
– Helps you with more traffic and sales
– Helps you attract the right audience from Google

Final thoughts on blog post descriptions

If you want to grow your search traffic, it’s extremely important to write powerful descriptions for your blog and individual blog posts.

Make sure to keep your audience in mind, analyze your competitors and focus on benefits while creating meta descriptions.

So what are your thoughts about compelling blog descriptions? Did you find this post useful? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments.

Blog Descriptions: The Beginner’s Guide With Examples