Meta Description Tag
Tag: <meta name=”description”>
Syntax: <meta name=”description” content=”insert keyword-rich description text here” />
Description:
The Meta description tag is important as it may be used in Google as the snippet of text which appears for the site summary in the SERP’s. It ranks below the <title> tag in terms of SEO importance. Having a better, more concise and professional HTML meta tag description can help your link be actually followed in search engine results as this summary information is displayed in most search engine results.
Overview:
- The Meta description tag needs to be page specific. A different one for every page of your site.
- Do not stuff it with keywords (otherwise called keyword-stuffing). This may get you sandboxed in Google.
- Do use your main keywords as they occur naturally in the body of your page. Order of keywords is important, so try to keep the same order that users would use to find your services (use a tool like Google Keyword Checker to see what SE users are typing into Google).
- Leaving this tag blank is a massive mistake. For ranking with Yahoo meta tags and meta descriptions are still very important. Keep it unique and relevant.
- Keep the text shorter than 155 characters
- Make sure your grammar and spelling is correct. This description text will appear in the SERP’s and will reflect badly for you website brand if basic grammar/spelling errors show up in the SERP’s.
- If your web business is localized, i.e. physically located in an area in which you wish to attract customers, then include the name of the location in the description
Example:
As an example for a site about wildlife park called ‘Giants Park’:
[Unoptimized] <Meta name=”description” content=”Giants Park with nice animals”>
[Optimized] – <Meta name=”description” content=”Giants Wildlife Park, Louisiana, with tigers, lions, other big cats and many other animals.“>
