November 18, 2003

In case you don’t know it, the meta description tag or “Meta Desc” as we call them are what people searching the web will see in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages). That, along with your important title tag information I explained in one of last week’s articles on this website. Simply put, the words placed within your meta description tag can help a page to rank higher in the search results, if done correctly.

Definition of the "Meta Description Tag"
The meta description tag is just simply a snippet of HTML code that belongs inside the HEAD section of a Web page. To be real effective, it has to be placed after the title tag and before the meta keyword tag. The proper syntax for the meta description tag is:

Functioning of the meta description tag
When applied correctly, the functioning of this important tag is twofold. The actual words placed within this tag are given some crucial weight with most major search engines today and can really help a page to rank higher in the search results for specific keywords and key phrases. Just as important, the words placed in the meta description tags appear under the title in a search engine's list of results, giving searchers a much better idea of what that page is all about.

If no information is supplied for that tag, or if it is omitted from the HTML code of a web page, the search engines will often use the first few words that appear on that web page as the description of the site that appears on search results pages. We’ve all seen search results pages with some that look like this:

"Maria’s Gourmet Restaurants" — [homepage] [about us] [hours] [contact us].

If the search results look like this it is simply because Maria or her site designer either forgot or neglected to write a meta description tag in her or his HTML code. The search engine did retrieve in fact the first few words on the page, but they happened to be some navigational links. As anyone can readily see, not only does this look awkward, it fails completely in offering searchers any information they can use that could otherwise be of value to them.

Surveys indicate that most people tend to skip over search results that look similar to what you just saw and they then click on the next link that will offer them more relevant information describing what is on that next page.

How to really design meta description tags that will work
As we have just seen, because the meta description tag actually serves two functions, it must be carefully thought about differently than the title tag and meta keyword tag. Personally, I use both of those tags mostly for high search engine results rankings. But the meta description tag should also be thought of as a marketing vehicle along with being a tool for high search rankings. I recommend that it utilizes your most important keywords and key phrases for that particular page. Additionally, make certain it is written in a way that will entice searchers to click on your link instead of your competitors.

If you read my previous articles on this website, and if you have access to a professional copywriter for the sales copy for your website, you could take an important descriptive sentence from the sales copy and place it in the meta description tag. Even if your page wasn't professionally written, you should look to find a line that will work for this function. Some optimization experts recommend using the first line of text on your page if you don’t know which one to use. I think that is a good place to start, although there are certainly more you can look at.

If you have what you think is an appropriate first line, then you could try it and then test the results in the search engines. There are some that will tell you the search engines don’t give the description tag nearly as much importance as they give the title tag. Some of that could be true. However, and talking from experience, I do know that some major search engines do in fact index the words placed in the meta description tag right into their database, and therefore it is important for you to get some of your most important keywords into them.

There are also some people that will tell you that the first words in this tag are often given more weight than the latter words. Because of this, I always try to write the important keywords at the beginning. I also usually try to use the same first words that I've used in my title tag as the first words in my meta description tag whenever at all possible. I usually limit this tag to one good but short descriptive sentence. Generally speaking, some search engines will index approximately 150 characters of your meta description tags. The longest ones I have seen so far are in HotBot.

Additionally, try to not repeat words in the meta description tag. However, one thing you could do is use various forms of words in the tag, example: plural/singular, present tense/past tense or "ing" forms of words or verbs and so on and so forth.

Finally, always make sure that all your meta description tags are actual sentences, not just simply a list of keywords or key phrases. If you create good meta description tags, you can often use them as the descriptions you would enter in search engine directories such as Yahoo, the Open Directory (DMOZ), Global Business Listing and LookSmart.

Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2003

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