No description tag = lower in serps

I found this out by accident.
I use modified description and keyword metatags on my vbulletin forums.
Well, i forgot to add them on the forumhome template on one of my sites.
When i was using the site: command on Google for that site, i didn't see index.php on the first page, it was on the 3rd.
I checked the results for my other forums that do have the tags and index.php of those forums were all on the 1st page at the top.

So, does this mean that Google actually does care for the description tag?

 

Nope, I'd say it's unrelated.

 

Id say it helps.. but its the link popularity really matters.

 

keywords in description tag increase relevancy for certain queries, therefore this effect is a result of making your pages more relevant for particular queries. Optimization is not a woodoo mystery, everything has rational explanation.

 

meta description help your site too much.

 

meta tags help search engine to understand the content of your pages . if you dont use meta tags or use stupid meta tag , search engines will not undertand the content of your site easly

 

Thanks for the replies guys
Are other meta tags like author and rating worth adding?
I did notice that if i search for keywords that keywords in the description are also bold in serps.
Btw, i added the tags to the forumhome template and i'll see what it does.

 

Google place more weight on description tag than yahoo and msn. For any keyword searches, google will look for the keywords in title tag, description tag, url and page content. If found the keywords, the page will show in SERPs.

 

It is good to put the description tags.

 

What I believe is its always a good practise to put meta description and meta keyword tags on the page.

 

I did SEO for oone company - the best perfomring site in terms of seo in the whole industry was one that didn't use keyword or description tags at all. I've always put them in becuase I figure it doesn't hurt but in terms of being a major positive in Google I'd say no. It's all about correct link structure - internal ind inbound.

 

it helps a lot.. atleast for me because it take my directory out of supplemental results and give me some ++ traffic from SEs....

 

description tag is just for the description in the serp's.

 

may or may not affect the serps, but its a good practice if you use it as it tells the searchers about the contents of your page.