4 Comments

Meta Description – USE IT!!!

Nov 28, 2006
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Google apparently has let another cat out of the bag. Now any respectable SEO will make sure that you always use unique Meta and Title Tags … but, trust me I know a lot that do not, nor do they recommend that you should use them. Well, now it is official (IMO) – Google’s Vanessa Fox responded to a post in Google Groups asking about the use of the Meta Description tag.

“Looking at your site in the search results, it appears that your pages would be well served by meta description tags. For most queries, the generated snippet is based on where the query terms are found on the page, and in those cases, your results are fine. But for some more generic queries, where a logical snippet isn’t found in the text, the generated snippet seems to be coming from the first bits of text from the page — in this case, boilerplate navigation that is the same for every page.”

… basically, use them … enough said

Filed under: Search Engine Marketing
  • http://www.revenuesource.com Tom A

    I've experienced where too short of a description has also caused Google to include the meta-description, then an undesirable snippet added at the end. Fifteen to twenty words in one to two very descriptive, non-spammy sentences will do you well.

  • http://www.scottpolk.com Scott Polk

    I would agree with you 100% … my personal default (that I recommend to all my clients) is:

    18 words +/- 6 words for the description … but, you always need to look at what the competition is doing.

  • http://www.GWEGGY.com Gregg

    This is great insight. Thank you. I will check your blog out for the real goods on SEO.

    How does one employ a Meta Tagging on a blog? Would it be in the blog description under the header, the first post or something in the template itself?

    Any thoughts!?

    Gregg http://www.GWEGGY.com

  • http://www.michaelpolk.com Scott Polk

    Gregg :

    It will really depend on your blogging platform. With Blogger … I am not sure it is possible since it is an ASP. But, with others it is simply a code/dB change that will allow you to add a Meta Description and Meta Keywords tag to the section of the HTML.

    Thanks for reading … hope that helped.