Another important aspect of Search Engine Optimization is making proper use of the “description” meta tag. In SEO terms the description title tag provides Google and other search engines a brief summary of what the page is about. While the value of Search Engine Optimization can be debated the usefulness of the page description is obvious.
The description of your webpage can be a few words, a phrase, or a few sentences. The description meta tag is important because Google, other Search Engines and social networks like Facebook may use this tag for a snippet or descriptions of what your page is about. For proper Search Engine Optimization it is good practice to have an accurate page description in the event a search engine cannot accurately assess what the page is about.
Another benefit for SEO is that the words in your description that match users query are bolded. The bolded text provides the user clues as to whether or not the content on the page is relevant to the users search.
The proper html format for the meta tag “description” is as follows:
<meta name=”description” content=”SEO Tips | Using the Description Meta Tag” />
Best practices for using the meta tag “description”:
1. Provide an accurate summary of your pages description.
2. Keep the length of the description within the search engines maximum readable length. You may contact for complete details on each search engine.
3. Have a different description for each page of your website.
4. eCommerce sites: have a unique Description for each product within your store.
Things to Avoid:
1. Duplicate content.
2. Duplicate content (you see why now)
3. Descriptions with no relevancy to the page
4. Using generic descriptions like “see my website”
5. Keyword stuffing.
In general the Meta Tag “description” will give you a little more control over what people see before deciding what site to click on. The more useful, compelling and accurate the description the better chances you have to be the preferred search result. It is worth the extra time to give you a small edge in your Search Engine Optimization efforts.
