Ever heard of a meta tag? Many people in the SEO industry believe that they have been devalued over the last few years in terms of their ability to get you ranked. Whether this is true or not is not the purpose of this post. What I wanted to discuss was how a properly written meta tag description can help you improve your click through rate from the search engines themsevles. A meta description tag is a brief, concise overview that describes the entire contents of a website page accurately and succinctly. This description is also displayed by the search engines and appears in the search results often.
Want to know where it appears in your code? It is placed inside the <Head> </Head> section of a web page and comes after the 'title' tag but before the meta 'keywords' tag. The appropriate syntax for this HTML tag is <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Description here." /> Now that we have that figured out lets move on!
Below are 3 hints to help you with your website Page Descriptions!
Increased Click Through Rates
Many times when the user searches for something, they will see what we call the meta tag 'description' below the 'Title' in the actual search results. If the user finds that the keywords and key phrases he used in the search, in the SERP there is a better chance that he will click on that particular find! The description is a user’s first contact with your site and he would usually prefer to click on a concise, well written description that contains relevant keywords he was looking for rahter than a description that is a mere jumble of keywords. It can also be written in advertisement style that should create an awareness and interest in a web user and entice him to click on the results. If you run a PPC campaign you will know the importance between a good description for your ads and its positive effects on click through rates. A good description can induce a user to click on your site
Use of Keywords in Meta Descriptions
While writing the meta description you should try to include your most important keywords at least twice and two or three other keywords at least once. There is also a limit to the number of characters you should include in your description. Google generally displays up to 160 characters, Yahoo up to 165 and Bing up to 200. The description should be informative and compelling and should contain correct grammar, correct spelling and correct sentence structure.
Unique Page Description for Each Page
Each and every page should have a separate meta description and should summarize that particular page only. For the main home page, you should use a site level, broad description. Never use the website’s URL address in the meta description tag. All major search engines usually want meta description tags present in every page’s HTML code. If the search engines do not find the description tag present, they will take the most relevant content from the page and include it as the description. This is usually an arbitrary decision the search engines makes depending on what it likes better.
There are many things that effect your overall search engine ranking results. A well written page description back in the day could make a huge impact. These days while still somewhat relevant to improving rankings, it actually can do much more to improve click through rates then people realized years ago.
on
It is generally agreed that search engines no longer give heavy weight to the meta description and keywords tags for ranking purposes per se. However, they are still very important. As we all have mentioned, the human user reads the description in the SERPs, so it is their first impression of your website.
Personally, I don’t quite agree with “include your most important keywords at least twice and two or three other keywords at least once” as that doesn’t leave much character room. The description of the page should be 1 or 2 natural sentences. Such sentences tend not to have keywords that often in them.
If the page is for a certain product, then say “The product widget has multi-functions, comes in a wide variety of colors, and has been favorably reviewed. We have priced this widget far below our competitors.” Obviously that is a lousy description, but you get the idea. The keyword was the product name. The keyword should be towards the beginning of the description to ensure it shows up within the character limit.
on
Search engines as far as we know, do not give much weightage to these description tags for SERP rankings. But yes, a well written description tag is an effective marketing tool that could compel the user to click on a site. A concise, eye catching description tag could prove an effective online marketing tool and is indispensable for the success of online business.
on
Good tips to write description tags. Description tags can prove critical in driving traffic from the search engines to a website and hence should be carefully written. The perfect meta description is like the perfect ad, persuasive and informative. And sometimes even when the title tag doesn’t serve its purpose a well-written description can still effect click-throughs and conversions from the customer.
on
The Meta description and titles act as waypoints to both search engines and human visitors. It shows them what we’re highlighting or offering.
I think the most important of all would be accuracy and correctness and ofcourse not spamming the keywords. Very good tips.
Thanks for the post.
Tom