Michael Epps Utley 
People today like short-form content in a big way.
Billions watch TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels — and peruse social media posts — every month.
However, it isn’t just people who like short content.
Google, YouTube, content management systems (CMS), and social media platforms have placed a significant focus on concise content. Many set tight character limits on things like meta descriptions, excerpts, episode descriptions, and posts.
This guide explains how to make the most of a limited number of characters.
Meta Descriptions
Though there is some disagreement, most experts believe meta descriptions should be between 150 and 160 characters. Anything longer allows Google to take control and create a truncated version, which may or may not reflect your content or the searcher’s intent.
What’s critical is to make the most of the limited characters allowed to you.
To craft a meta description that delivers, consider what searchers want from your content. Ideally, you should have thought about this before creating the material.
Next, write a short, relevant summary of the page based on its intent. Put simply, think of it as a pitch to convince searchers the content on your web page is exactly what they’re looking for. Leverage keywords from the page in your descriptions. Be as direct as possible because you want people to click without thinking twice. Ensure you craft unique descriptions for every page on your site to avoid confusing prospective website visitors. They shouldn’t look too much alike (this can set pages up to neutralize each other).
Excerpts
Many people take the easy way out and paste their meta descriptions into the excerpt fields in WordPress or other similar fields on other CMS platforms.
In most cases, an excerpt should not be identical to the corresponding meta description.
Excerpts are summaries of articles on your site. They typically appear in places like a blog summary index. The person seeing an excerpt is on your website, not a search engine results page (SERP), making them different from meta descriptions.
In this case, you aren’t asking people to pick your content over a competitor’s. You want to encourage them to read more on your site. You need to explain why the content is a valuable next step beyond something a website visitor has already consumed.
An excerpt is typically slightly longer than the meta description — approximately 30 characters. It’s less keyword-dependent and focuses more on the article’s critical takeaway ideas.
YouTube Descriptions
YouTube allows 5,000 characters to describe a video, translating to about 800 to 1,000 words. However, most experts advise against using all of them.
It is critical to consider the YouTube description in two parts. The first is the text before the clickable word “more.” The second is the text that appears in full after the click.
When you craft the first part, include up to three keywords that reflect the video’s subject matter. At least one of them should appear in the title of the video. Including these keywords is critical because YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world after Google (and is owned by and connected to Google), and they can send valuable signals to the platform.
Once you select the keywords, craft a few sentences (about 100 to 200 characters) to explain to both searchers and subscribers to your channel the benefits of viewing the video.
You should repeat the keywords in the second part of the description, further explaining what the video is about and why people should watch it. Also, include timestamps and chapters for the video to help viewers find the content that’s most valuable to them without having to view the whole piece. You can also include links to additional content viewers may find helpful. Finally, close by asking people to subscribe to your YouTube channel and visit your website.
Ideally, you should aim to accomplish this in far less than the allowable 5,000 characters because of today’s limited attention spans and the popularity of viewing videos on smartphones.
LinkedIn Posts
All social media platforms prefer short-form posts. However, many users extend their content on LinkedIn because it allows companies up to 700 characters for page posts.
The issue: LinkedIn shows about 200 characters or less before the “More” link appears, meaning some of the content is immediately hidden. That means you must write a complete post that doesn’t require readers to click to see more or craft a post that compels the reader to click “more” and then delivers more content worth their time.
In either case, you must craft a short yet compelling message. The added complication with LinkedIn is that users aren’t always actively searching for information and may not be interested in your post topic.
Focus on the content that appears in the feed. Leverage arresting images to attract attention to your post. Then, write a post that quickly and clearly reveals the topic’s benefit and explains what the reader will get if they click the article link.
One more thing: Hashtags are included in your LinkedIn character count. And while valuable, be judicious with them to ensure you have enough characters to optimize your key messages.
Mini Content: The Final Word
Today, brevity is key when it comes to digital content. Google demands it, YouTube likes it, and LinkedIn prefers it. But more importantly, people with increasingly short attention spans do, too.
Leverage the tips in this guide to create short content that readers find compelling.
