Learn/Good-Meta-Descriptions-Bring-More-Site-Traffic
Revision as of 00:40, 21 February 2011 by Aliza Earnshaw (talk | contribs)
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Writing the meta description for an important web page on your site is like writing an advertisement: It should persuade someone to take action.
In the case of a meta description, the desired action is a click. That's because the meta description of a web page usually appears in search engine results as the description for that page.
In the image below, we show search results from Google. The meta description for each web page appears as black text below the blue text. The blue text is the clickable link to the web page, and search engines get that text from the title tag for the page. Title tags are also like mini-ads for web pages - learn more about them in our article, Increase Site Traffic with Title Tags.
The meta description of a web page is a piece of text written by the owner or website designer to describe what's on that page. It is included in the code, or computer language, for the page.
The meta description is often displayed below the title of the web page in search results. The title appears as a clickable link to the page, and both the title and the meta description help people decide whether they want to visit that web page.
Writing an accurate, engaging meta description for a site's home page is one of the first steps a website owner can take to create a strong online presence. Every important page on a website should also have a good title and an accurate, attractive meta description.
Search engines will generally read 200 to 250 characters of the meta description, but usually display just 150 characters, including spaces. The first 150 characters should contain the most important keywords for the web page. Using fewer than 50 characters could mean you’re not saying enough about the page.
If a web page does not have a specific meta description, search engines will pick up a piece of text in the web page that corresponds to the terms used for a search, and will display that text as the description.
Website designers and owners who pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO) use relevant keywords in the meta description. For example, a site that sells dog supplies would attract more visitors by including keywords such as "dogs" and "dog supplies" in its meta description.