Meta description tag

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by eXe, Apr 1, 2007.

  1. addlinkurl

    addlinkurl Well-Known Member

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    #21
    still, description tag is very important. i get 2k visiters and %80 are coming because of description tag.
     
    addlinkurl, Apr 2, 2007 IP
  2. CraigslistGuy

    CraigslistGuy Banned

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    #22
    Very important. Searchers will always click meaningful and relevant descriptions in SERPs.
     
    CraigslistGuy, Apr 2, 2007 IP
  3. Forcefield

    Forcefield Peon

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    #23
    It depends on which search engine you're optimizing your pages for.

    Google's Vanessa Fox recommends that webmasters should use this tag.
     
    Forcefield, Apr 3, 2007 IP
  4. axemedia

    axemedia Guest

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    #24
    Depends on the page.

    For those who have not figured it out. The blurb of text that a SE shows, in search results, below your anchor text (your title tag) is your meta description, if you have one. If you don't have a meta description the SE will pull sentence fragments from your content that contain keywords from the key phrases the user used in the search.

    Most people will read this blurb before they click. So a well crafted description can help induce more clicks.

    I don't always bother with a description tag. Depends on the page and my SEO strategy for that page. On general information/content sites who's pages are pulling lots of long tail searches, then I will often not add a description tag. Because the long tail search attracts so many variants of keywords and phrases, it is often too difficult to write a description that covers all those bases. So let the search engine choose what it wants to display as the blurb based on the keywords the searcher used.

    On pages that are more focused on a core set of keywords and a few phrase variants, a description tag is advisable. It can be written in such a way as to target more qualified traffic.

    For pages that are selling a particular product or service, a description tag is a must have!
     
    axemedia, Apr 3, 2007 IP
  5. jl255

    jl255 Well-Known Member

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    #25
    good pointers.....
     
    jl255, Apr 3, 2007 IP
  6. Linkmeup

    Linkmeup Peon

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    #26
    Excellent stuff. So as a general rule of thumb to use meta description tags for specific keyword phrases is a good idea to encourage click through but for pages with a ton of long tail searches don't bother and let the SE pick the content?
     
    Linkmeup, Apr 3, 2007 IP
  7. axemedia

    axemedia Guest

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    #27
    Basically, but in some cases your pages that target very specific keywords may still get lots of long tail stuff too, depending on how much content you have. Depending on the objective of the page a description tag may still be better than letting the SE decide what to display in the blurb.
     
    axemedia, Apr 3, 2007 IP