What is an optimum description length?

When I first started this directory stuff (am still a newbie) it seemed reasonable to me that the longer the descriptions had the better big G would like it but this results in very spammy descriptions which I am quite sure big G can recognize and grade accordingly. I started off at 700 characters, cut that to 500 and then 400. Even at this level a large number of submissions are maybe 1 sentence and a long comma separated list of garbage.

I am currently going through Yolander.com and evaluating every entry (dull, boring but necessary for what I am trying to do) to make sure it is in the proper category, has a good title and description, and a quality Web site I am finding myself editing nearly every description and ending up with 1 or 2 sentences.

One of the very top quality directories (JoeAnt) limit the editors to 35 word descriptions which at first seem restrictive end up, in most instances clearly describing the resource.

I am contemplating cutting to 250 characters but wonder if that is to short for those who want to write a good description for their submissions?

Opinions?

 

One or two sentences is perfect for human searchers. Any more and it's just waffle, and people won't read it. It's hard to write much more than that about a website without repeating yourself and rephrasing things needlessly, especially if it's a site with a fairly narrow focus.

Forget about what the search engines might like. If you demand a really long description you'll just fall foul of duplicate content, because submitters aren't likely to write a unique essay for each directory they submit to.

 

i would say between 150 and 200 characters, however I would put it all in one sentence.

 

I looked at what I submit for my sites and I average 300-400 characters.

Unless you truly need the space, why not leave it the larger size and edit down the blowhards?

 

I would agree with what Nima said. 150-200 characters should make for a concise description with out over-extending it.

 

A sentence or 02 would be fine. Roughly around 150 characters.

 

I have 200 characters maximum and find it's ample.

 

Thanks for all the input. That confirms what I have been thinking. I am finding that the better descriptions with submissions are mostly 1 or 2 sentences. Am getting so sick at those long spam junk descriptions that I seldom take the time to look at the site, just hit the good old delete button.

I just cut to 275 and may take it down further. Last few days my rejection rate is 85-90% as I am getting sick of editing free submissions.

 

I generally keep 150 to 200 characters while submission
i believe that interesting description will send some visitors

 

Better to using description is 150 characters.

 

me too. always keep in my mind 150 - 200 characters while I write a description.

 

I think 350 characters is a good average.

On mine i allow from 100 something... to 500 characters.

For some reason a lot of german language directories that i found had a large allowance for descriptions, up to 1000 characters, although some had high minimums, 400 - 500 characters, which i think is a bit OTT.

 

imo you need to keep in mind the keywords in description but not how many characters.

 

I reckon about 200 - 250 characters is good.

 

The shorter the better IMO

 

well, the description has to describe the link to some extend . it cant be that short

 

i use 240 - 255 character in description.

 

i use around 150-200 characters in my description