Blog descriptions are an important consideration when setting up a blog, but what should you write in your blog description?
After spending years writing descriptions from scratch, I’ve found that online tools offer the simplest solution.
You can quickly generate blog descriptions while incorporating your target keywords.
Whether you choose to write them yourself or use an online tool, you should learn more about the importance of blog descriptions.
Here is what you should know.
Contents
- What Is a Blog Description?
- What Are the Two Types of Blog Descriptions?
- How Long Should a Blog Description Be?
- How to Write a Blog Description
- Blog Description Template
- Blog Description Quotes
- Examples of Effective Blog Descriptions
- How Do I Add a Description to My Blog?
- Save Time: Use a Blog Description Generator
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Wrapping Up
What Is a Blog Description?
A blog description is a summary of the content contained in a blog.
The description helps readers and search engines know what to expect before reading a blog.
Blog descriptions are often added in the meta description tag in the HTML of a page.
Google uses the meta description as the text that appears below the title in search engine results.
What Are the Two Types of Blog Descriptions?
There are two types of descriptions for blogs—blog descriptions and blog post descriptions.
1. Blog Description
The main blog description describes the overall type of content found on your blog.
The blog description may appear in directory listings and other backlinks to the blog section of your website.
It is also often used in the meta description for the homepage of your blogs.
2. Blog Post Description
A blog post description is used to describe the content of an individual post.
It typically includes the target keyword for the post.
Search users often use blog post descriptions to determine whether a link is likely to contain the information that they need.
Why Is a Blog Description Important?
A blog description provides an overview of what people can expect from your blog and posts.
It also helps with search engine optimization (SEO).
Google pulls descriptions from the first sentence or two of a webpage if the page does not include a meta description.
An effective description boosts your SEO and helps your link stand out compared to other results, which drives more traffic to your site.
How Long Should a Blog Description Be?
Blog descriptions should typically contain a maximum of 160 characters, especially when used as the meta description for the page.
Google and other search engines display the description in search results below the title of each link.
The title is typically cut off after about 155 to 160 characters.
How to Write a Blog Description
A blog description should entice readers to want to read more.
Along with the blog title, the blog description is often the first thing that people see when scrolling through search results.
A blog description needs to accurately summarize the content of the blog.
Relevance is one of the factors that Google uses to determine search engine rankings.
What Do You Include in a Blog Description?
An effective blog description should include several components, including:
- Blog and author name
- Focus topic & supporting keywords
- E-A-T credentials & social proof
- Power words & dates
A blog post description includes different elements.
When adding a meta description for a blog post, you typically try to include the target keyword in the description while summarizing the post in 160 characters or less.
Blog and Author Name
The description for the whole blog that appears under the blog’s homepage link should include the name of the blog and the author.
Focus Topic & Supporting Keywords
The blog description should incorporate a focus keyword and supporting keywords.
The keywords need to be relevant to the content.
E-A-T Credentials & Social Proof
Google uses a variety of factors to determine search engine rankings.
One of the search ranking factors is your E-A-T, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
Your E-A-T credentials help demonstrate why people should trust your content.
You may want to express your expertise in some way, such as mentioning a title, accreditation, or qualification following your name.
For example, someone with a doctorate may include the post-nominal initials “Ph.D.” after their name.
Power Words & Dates
Use power words and dates to grab attention and get people to visit your blog. Examples of power words include:
- Instantly
- Inspiring
- Luxurious
- Effortless
- Captivating
- Life-Changing
- Unexpected
- Alarming
These words are often used in headlines, titles, and descriptions to evoke emotions and trigger curiosity.
How to Start a Blog Description
Effective blog descriptions often start with an attention-grabbing statement that includes a target keyword.
Examples of sentence starters for blog descriptions include:
- Discover the best…
- We are the most trusted source for…
- You can rely on us for the best…
After opening with a short statement and keyword, you may include the name of the blog and author and add credentials and social proof.
Blog Description Template
Here is a simple blog description template that can use to understand the basic structure of a description:
Explore effortless [target keyword] techniques.
[Blog name/author name], a trusted [credentials], shares advice for better [goal of blog articles].
Blog Description Quotes
People often wonder if they can use quotation marks in their blog descriptions.
You can include quotes in your blog description if you use HTML entities for the quotation marks.
The HTML entity for quotes is:
"
The ["] entity is added before and after the quote. Google, Yahoo, and other search engines display HTML entities properly in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Examples of Effective Blog Descriptions
Here are five great examples of blog descriptions that incorporate the elements discussed:
1. HubSpot’s Blog Description
“HubSpot’s Blog for marketing, sales, agency, and customer success content, which has more than 400,000 subscribers and attracts over 4.5 million monthly visitors.”
HubSpot’s description explains the type of content that you can find on the blog.
The description also boasts a large subscriber count and many monthly visitors, which demonstrates the authority and expertise of the blog.
2. Dr. Axe
“Dr. Josh Axe, DNM, DC, CNS, is a doctor of natural medicine, chiropractor, clinical nutritionist and author with a passion to help people get well using nutrition, natural remedies (including essential oils), healthy recipes and fitness.”
The Dr. Axe blog description mentions the doctor’s qualifications and areas of expertise.
3. Master Blogging
“Master Blogging is your go-to resource to learn how to start and grow a real blogging business in 2022. Start your blog today!”
Master Blogging grabs attention and identifies its unique selling proposition (USP) in just a few words.
It also includes the current year, which indicates that the information is up to date.
4. Engadget
“Find the latest technology news and expert tech product reviews. Learn about the latest gadgets and consumer tech products for entertainment, gaming, and more…”
Engadget concisely explains the topics covered on its blog.
The blog description is simple and to the point.
5. Lonely Planet
“Love travel? Discover, plan and book your perfect trip with expert advice, travel guides, destination information and inspiration from Lonely Planet.”
Lonely Planet starts with a question to draw readers in.
The description then explains what you can expect to find if you click on the link.
How Do I Add a Description to My Blog?
You can easily add descriptions to your blog’s homepage and individual blog posts through the WordPress dashboard.
Options for adding meta titles and descriptions are included in the default page editor.
You can also add blog descriptions for the whole blog and individual posts using SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO or RankMath.
Watch the following video for step-by-step instructions on adding meta descriptions in WordPress using the Yoast SEO plugin.
Save Time: Use a Blog Description Generator
Online blog description generators save you time by automatically generating a blog description based on the criteria that you provide.
These generators typically rely on templates to create descriptions that include relevant keywords.
The Five Best Blog Description Generators
Here are five of the best blog description generators if you want to avoid the hassle of creating descriptions from scratch:
1. Jasper.ai
Jasper is an artificial intelligence (AI) writing assistant designed to help writers and marketers.
It includes a variety of features, including the ability to create blog descriptions from templates.
2. Copy.ai
https://www.copy.ai/tools/meta-description-generator#
Copy.ai is comparable to Jasper when it comes to the quality of the descriptions that it generates.
It can create natural-sounding descriptions that require minimal editing.
3. Rytr
Rytr is a versatile tool that generates SEO blog descriptions.
It can even provide multiple variations, giving you several options to choose from.
4. Dashword
https://www.dashword.com/meta-description-generator
Dashword offers a free web-based meta description generator.
It does not allow you to input as many details, which limits the relevance of the description.
However, it offers a starting point for creating an original description that you can edit to suit your needs.
5. Frase.io
Frase.io is an AI-based platform that offers a wide range of solutions for simplifying your blogging efforts.
You can use Frase to generate meta descriptions, titles, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to a couple of the most frequently asked questions about blogs:
Why Is It Called a Blog?
Blog is short for “weblog,” which was a term created by one of the first bloggers. Jorn Barger coined the term in 1997 to describe his efforts “logging the web.”
What Is the Purpose of a Blog?
The purpose of a blog is to educate or entertain. Most blogs focus on providing informative content to help educate their readers.
Wrapping Up
A blog description is a necessary element when creating a blog and publishing new blog posts.
You need a short, concise description of what your blog is about, along with a unique description for each post.
The typical description includes a target keyword and power words to help grab attention.
Descriptions also need to accurately summarize the content.
If you want to generate quality blog descriptions with minimal effort, consider using an online description generator tool, such as Jasper or Frase.
