I'm reworking my site based on some Google Webmaster tools suggestions. I have about 2500 page that they tag as having short meta descriptions. They average 50 characters or less. How many characters should I be shooting for? A 1000 Thanks for any input.
I would recommend 1 or 2 short sentences. Since the meta descriptions are often used in the search engine rankings, you should try to describe the page in a way that would make users want to click on the search engine listing.
I wouldn't waste your time. Google doesn't use this meta tag in relation to the SERP's. Only be concerned with "duplicate" meta data.
Using unique and rather short meta description tags for all pages could be nice. Some webmasters believe that writing such tags efficiently could even affect the clicks data of the websites as people could become interested in clicking on the links.
I have to agreed with SearchBliss, it is not worth your time. If you want to make change only a few pages then I would recommend give it a go. However, if you have to make changes to those 2,500 pages just for seo purpose then it's not worth it. Google does use meta description to display on search results page mainly and counted only small percentage towards seo, around 3% may be. If you really wanted to make change anyway, I would recommend not over 160 characters for Google / 165 for Yahoo / 200 for Bing.
I'll have to disagree. The description tag doesn't have much effect on Serps, (if any) but you can use it to specify what text you want in your listing. Instead of focusing on keywords, put in text that will make them click. If you create something that entices people to click your SERP, that helps a lot. I would focus on using it to get people to click rather than to get the SERP itself. and like Sxperm says, 160 Google / 165 Yahoo / 200 Bing is about right.
The meta description tag is still a SERP factor combined with the link building, page speed, unique contents, relevancy and more. Keep it to 165 characters maximum, 2 sentences, bear in mind Google displays this in search result snippets and matches your search query, so its still relevant.
Thanks guys. I have a lot of "duplicate" meta data. So I guess that should be focus now. A 1000 Thanks.
I read on many different posts about length of meta tags and all SEO views are different about it, some say 155 or 165 or 255 but i think Google read them and save it in its DB. So its about 155 to 180 characters are best but these are essential factor for SEO point of view
Go and check google search results page, it provides almost two lines for description, your description should be good enough to use these two lines in the most useful way possible.
You can write unique meta description with a maximum of 160 characters (focus on Google and your site will be optimized for other search engines as well, if not, then no need to worry, Google has 80%+ search market share... You'll be getting results anyway.) Secondly, meta description has no impact on SERPs but yet again, it is important to have unique description tag in every web page. Hope this helps.
160 characters and each page needs to be unique got it. I'll add this in my new redesign. A 1000 Thanks guys!
Wrong. Google doesn't use the keyword meta tag. Google do use the description meta tag. Aim for one or two sentences. About 150 characters is the max. Google will display without truncating it.