How to write SEO friendly meta descriptions for Joomla!

What are meta descriptions?

Meta descriptions are short descriptions of the content on a web page. These descriptions can be displayed in search engine results pages, so it’s good practice to create a unique, accurate meta description for each page on your site. However, if search engines find more relevant information in the page content or from other sources that link to the page, they’ll give that information more weight and use that in the page meta description.

Creating good meta descriptions

To get the most benefit from your meta descriptions, make sure each page has a unique description and consider the following guidelines:

  • Because there is a maximum number of characters that can be displayed in search engine results, try to make your meta descriptions 155 characters or less and place the most relevant words near the beginning.
  • Make descriptions that are human-readable, contain keywords, and accurately describe the page content.
  • Create meta descriptions for Joomla! listing pages (for example, blog and list layouts) in addition to articles.
  • Include details such as author, product numbers, and pricing where relevant.

The Joomla! global meta description field

To use the Joomla! global site meta description field, log in to your Joomla! administrator back-end and go to Global Configuration > Site > Metadata Settings. This description will be used on any page on your site that doesn’t have its own unique meta description. Note that using this field is a good fallback option, but isn’t as effective for search engine optimization as having unique descriptions on each page.

More information

For more information about search engine optimization for your Joomla! site, see Free tools for managing your Joomla! SEO and How to optimize your Joomla! site for search engines in the HostPapa knowledge base.

If you have any questions or need help, you can always contact HostPapa Support by opening a support ticket. Details about how to open a support ticket are here.

Related Articles

Get online with our affordable web hosting

Get online with our affordable web hosting

Learn more now
HostPapa Mustache