Hi there folks! I'm wondering that should I add to my site's meta tags description for every single / individual page? Or leave it just empty ("") and let the SEs decide what to show for people searching throug them. Any opinion is appreciated! But explanations would be really nice. Thanks in advance!
You can do whatever you want. If a meta description is present then the search engines have a choice about whether to use it as the snippet or not. A good meta description with a call to action & the keywords present will increase your listings CTR so I'd highly recommend writing unique descriptions for each page. These can easily be dynamically generated if you're working with php or asp.
Hi Vomis Yes is the simple answer, the resaons are a bit more complex. In addition to the description the title also needs to be different. Think in simple terms. Yes I know the robots and alogorythms arn't but the processng behind them is. Page A is about this, page B is about that 2 pages 2 different subjects. Therefore 2 different descriptions. Is an Audi A3 a BMW 3 series - no, they are different, therefore if you were writing the brochure for each what would you do? Sometimes we all get too hung upon the SEO bits we try to overcomplicate them. Think as a reader(visitor to your site) all you are given is a description of each page. Which page do you want? how do you choose? If every page desc was the same you couldn't, every page would appear to be the same. Well treat SE's like real visitors to your site. The more info you can give them the more choice they have. E.G. I started my personal blog about 3 weeks ago, had 10 days holiday (I know why start a blog then go on holiday....) but within 3 weeks I am on page 1 Google for most posts (by the time the big G) gets round to me. I have something like 50 posts and from my basic research I am on P1 for about 35 of them. I'm not even targeting Google page 1; my subjects are very competitive (internet marketing/internet accessibilty & internet usabability), just by writring good quality copy I have managed that. No 2 posts are the same, their description likewise. I notice DoA mentions keywords; don't worry too much about the keyword meta tag but DO include your keywords in the page title, description, <h1>, <h2> tags and your first paragraph. Importantly the actual structure of your HTML is important, the prper use of <h1>, <h2> etc. will pay real dividends when coupled with the page title and description. Concentrate on one alone and it doesn't work to be honest a waste of time, take all the bits and make them "one" then it works, is very important for SERPS and the good part is doesn't cost $ to a SEO snakeoil merchant.
Better to add. This is what is shown on google SERP when page is returned. The meta description is important. Also try to have non-duplicate meta descriptions - this way you can target more keywords and gain more traffic to your website. Even Google webmaster tools -> Diagnostic->HTML suggestions section designed to show this as crawl ISSUES, meaning this is not good.
The idea of description is to describe the content of your page in 160 characters. Try to use the phrases that people will most likely search with and that match your page content.
Your meta description is what users (surfers) see in the SERPS, therefore you need to write a effective description of that page in your desc. The key is to draw them in with a call to action and/or with relevant information.
Thanks for everyone! But I think the question truly stands: Is it wise to have descriptions of your own or let the SE crawl and then show what sits best with the users search phrase? Because I think e.g. Google gives different descriptions depending on the search phrase.
It is a wise idea to create your own description for each page. It allows you to decide what is shown and more important if you look at it as a billboard for marketing your goods you could improve your clickthrough from the searches if it is well written.
Google will not use your meta description for ranking. And if your site is listed on the DMOZ, they may pull your description from that. As the first person stated, google may or may NOT use a snippet from your description. Do a search for digital point forum and see what google lists for this site. You'd be amazed. Because a lot of people, me included, use php for each part of a website to make creating and maintaining easier, using the same description and title is not in itself bad. You need to pick a title and description that matches the content of all of your pages. This what google has said in the past: "Keep in mind that meta descriptions comprised of long strings of keywords don't achieve this goal and are less likely to be displayed in place of a regular, non-meta description, snippet. And it's worth noting that while accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won't affect your ranking within search results." "Using identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site isn't very helpful when individual pages appear in the web results. In these cases we're less likely to display the boilerplate text. Create descriptions that accurately describe each specific page. Use site-level descriptions on the main home page or other aggregation pages, and consider using page-level descriptions everywhere else. You should obviously prioritize parts of your site if you don't have time to create a description for every single page; at the very least, create a description for the critical URLs like your homepage and popular pages." Stephen C
Yes, you should have different descriptions for different pages. And prefer to have keywords according to the page.
Yes, it should be different because a site does not have same pages. All pages and page content are different so your page title and description should be according to your page content.