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| Improving Meta Description Tags |
Meta description tags were once all the discussion about
search engine optimization. However, the search engines
soon discovered how people were manipulating the system,
and made much less use of metatags in general. However,
while the importance of metatags may not be what it once
was, in recent years the meta description tags have
become much more important for different reasons.
While meta description tags may not be used to determine
your ranking, they are used to list your site with the
search engines. In fact, this tag and the title tag,
combined with the web address or URL of your site,
comprise the entire listing of your site on search
engine pages like Yahoo and MSN. While search engine
optimization may be enough to get your website a high
ranking and placed prominently on the search page, it
will not guarantee that people click on your link rather
than your competitor.
This is what makes the title and meta description tags
so important. You need to convince people who see your
website to click on your link. This requires well
written, interesting, and informative titles and
descriptions. You must also keep in mind length
requirements; basically, you can only have about two
sentences in your description.
Given these guidelines, writing effective meta
description tags may seem like the impossible task.
While it is not impossible, it is definitely not easy to
do in all cases. However, improving meta description
tags does not have to be painful, if you know the best
process of doing so.
Before you start writing your meta description tags, you
need to know a few things about how the search engines
use your tags. Yahoo will use your title as the link,
and the first ten to fifteen words of your description.
MSN will use your title as the link and the first twenty
to thirty words of your description. Google will use
your title as the link, but tends to be unpredictable in
their use, or lack thereof, of your description metatag.
Given this information, it is clear that you should
write two sentences, about ten to fifteen words each, to
make up your meta description tag. The first sentence
will be the only one seen by Yahoo surfers, so this
should be a well worded description of exactly what your
website is. The second sentence, seen by MSN users,
should back up the first sentence and convince surfers
to click on your link rather than that of your
competitor.
Although the search engines are not likely to put too
much stock in your metatags for ranking, it is still
important to use basic SEO techniques when writing your
two sentence description of your website. Use keywords
and phrases that are related to the products, services,
or information available on your website. You should
also include industry specific phrases and your location
if you only deal locally.
Do not get too caught up in your keywords for this
project, however. The main purpose of your meta
description tag is going to be to convince people to
click on your website. The best way to do this is to
keep your description brief but interesting, as well as
informative. The first sentence should be largely
informative while still being eye catching. The second
sentence of your meta description tags should give the
surfer a viable reason to click on your link. |
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