If you have content on your law firm’s website, you may be familiar with meta descriptions and how they can impact the SEO and general health of your law firm’s website. Meta descriptions are an important aspect of Search Engine Optimization that provide a short summary of the on-page content and serve as the description of the page on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). This in effect makes the meta description the first interaction potential clients have with your law firm’s website. The meta description will also function as an HTML tag and acts as a piece of ad text.
Law firms that are looking for ways to improve the SEO on their websites may want to know — are meta descriptions important for your law firm? We are here to help answer your questions at Civille and help you build an SEO strategy for your law firm.
Contact Civille today to learn more about our custom law firm websites and digital marketing services!
READ MORE: Guide to Link Building for Law Firms
Top 5 Benefits of Meta Descriptions for Law Firm Websites
The meta description on your website and on your content is an important piece of the SEO puzzle and provides a wealth of benefits for law firms that implement a good SEO strategy. When you work to write and implement quality meta descriptions, it can make your website and posts more appealing on SERPs, improve key metrics, help website content receive featured snippets, and improve the online experience.
Here is a better look at the key benefits of a quality meta description for law firm websites:
1. Improved Click-Through Rates (CTR)
Your law firm’s website Click-Through Rate measures the percentage of people that click on a SERP link and your meta description provides context for what that link or website is about. This is where a high-quality meta description can set your website apart and influence more online searchers to click on your website.
2. Improves the Mobile User Experience
A majority of people who search for legal services use their smartphones or tablets and the mobile user experience matters. When you search on a mobile device, the meta description plays an even more important role. Meta descriptions appear shorter on mobile platforms, which makes it even more important to write clear, concise descriptions.
3. Improves Communication with Online Users
How does an online user and potential client know if the website is what they are looking for? The short answer is — the meta description. The meta description is communication with online users and potential clients, it lets them know what they will find when they click on that link.
4. Improves Online Credibility
Your meta description provides a first impression for online users. That first impression helps build trust between potential clients and law firms. A high-quality and well-written meta description helps assure potential legal clients that the law firm they clicked on are experts in that practice area.
5. Contributes to Featured Snippets and AI Overview
Meta descriptions have an impact on rankings for Google searches and can contribute to Google AI Overview and Featured Snippets — which make your content and website stand out even more on SERPs. High-quality meta descriptions help Google understand what the content is about and that increases the potential to show up in Google AI Overview or Featured Snippets.
READ MORE: Does Deleting Old Content Improve SEO?
How To Write Quality Meta Descriptions for Your Law Firm
We have talked a lot about the benefits of writing concise, quality meta descriptions — but how do you accomplish that objective? How do you write a quality meta description for your law firm website and your SEO content?
Here are a few tips for writing high-quality meta descriptions:
- Include your focus keywords in the meta description in a natural way.
- Have your meta description focus on the intent of the content — whether that is to provide general information or a direct solution.
- Provide a call-to-action if possible within the meta description.
- Keep your meta description short and concise within 150-160 characters to prevent it from being cut off on mobile displays.
- Use empathy in your meta description that reflects the seriousness of the content for law firms and potential legal clients.
- Make sure your meta description is creative, unique, and grabs the attention of online searchers.
READ MORE: What Makes a Successful Legal Blog?
Are you looking for ways to improve the SEO for your law firm’s website? You may have questions about different elements of Search Engine Optimization, like meta descriptions. You may be asking if meta descriptions are important for your law firm and we hope that this overview of meta descriptions created by Civille will help.
Contact Civille today for a demo of our custom law firm websites!
