Hi pinkminty,
Newbie questions are much appreciated :). They might look easy, but I always learn from them.
I’m unsure where you’ve read 300 to 700 words is the ideal description, I believe they’ve meant the total page content (which is tested to be ideally 600 to 2000 words).
The description should be about the page. The more (different) words you use, the better chance you have to be found on more words.
Ideally, they should be very organic (real sentences), and fit on the Search Engine Results Page. It has been found that 150 to 160 characters are a perfect fit.
50 to 60 words, with an average of 6 characters per word (plus spaces), leads up to 300 to 360 characters. This is too much, and should be truncated when possible.
Green labels are a guideline (the perfect fit). Yellow is fine too. However, when it’s red, it’s something to be fixed.
Where have you found those random articles? I’d be happy leave a comment there :).
Nevertheless, it’s always best to have some text on the page as well (next to the gallery). It’s a perfect place for you to promote your gallery, and you can simply have a descriptive description tag about that text and title. Search Engines catch up on these, and at the same time it makes your website less bland.
I hope this helps! I wish you the best of luck, and let me know if you have any more questions! 🙂
I found the article about 300-700 words here: https://yoast.com/seo-friendly-blog-post/ (I know it’s your competitor! :P)
Oh DEAR. I only JUST realized that I was referring to the article/post content when I asked about “description” earlier. I was under the (wrong) impression description meant my article. I only now see it under SEO, please forgive me.
Does it mean I can just try to write a nice SEO description, and it does not matter as much if my gallery has text next to it or not?
Not my competitor, but rather a friendly inspirational neighbor :).
And your realization is correct!
It’s best and even recommended to fill in the description. Although I’ve automated it because I’m far too lazy myself to fill it in for each post and page.
Your gallery should contain some anchor texts, that explains why one’s on your page. The description may add onto that, which will explain why one should visit that page.
I hope this clears things up :). Good luck!
Thank you for your reply. It’s been very helpful.
I can’t believe I didn’t figure out that part about description /goes to hide
The automation for description always gives me red! I have gone in to fix so it’s all green or yellow. Makes me feel good 😀
Nothing to be ashamed of, I misread things all the time :^).
Best of luck with your website! 🙂
