Meta descriptions are the text matter that appears as snippets whenever you search for anything on the Google search. These Meta descriptions tell you about the website and what it offers in a few words. Google has earlier said that it will not count the Meta description when it is ranking any page but some recent developments have forced Meta description’s return. The new concept of personalized search has made it possible for the Meta description to return.
What is personalized search ?
Personalized search is a new initiative from Google in which they will tailor the search results of every user based on their earlier searches. This will take place even when the searcher is not logged in. Google has been customizing people’s search engine result pages since long, but they used to do so only when users were signed in to their respective accounts. Now even if they are not signed in, Google will customize their results through the personalized search.
How will personalized search affect the Page Ranking?
Well, now is the cliché. These personalized searches will actually affect the ranking of a page in a big way. Suppose a user has searched for ‘restaurants’ and visited a particular site say www.xyz.com for a number of times, then the ranking of the site www.xyz.com will improve drastically. Moreover this result will be stored in the web history of the user and whenever searched again by that user for ‘restaurants’, they will be taken first to this site only. So if a user visits the same website frequently, that website will be ranked higher in his personal search on Google.
Meta descriptions works better for personalized searches
Though Google may not consider Meta descriptions while ranking a page, Meta descriptions will affect page rank indirectly for personalized searches. If the Meta description is compelling and well written, then more people will click that website and the website will be stored in the web history of that user. When he again searches, the same website will be ranked higher so ultimately the page rank will improve.
You must remember that Google may not show whatever is written in your snippet and instead it can just show a few sentences randomly. Therefore, you must create the Meta description in such a way that each line is well defined and gripping which can convince people about your website.
Is personalized search effective ?
To be honest, there would be many people who would not like to be snooped by Google when they are not signed in. This may be taken as a breach of their privacy and security but many people would not know about this new concept of Google. Without knowing about personal search, the user will naturally click the website that appears on top of his search. But here Meta description can naturally help as he can read the snippet before clicking the site.
