META Description
Over the years META tags have been abused by many in order to try and manipulate search results. But in doing so many sites have been blacklisted. The importance of good META can’t be stressed enough and in this part of my mini series on SEO, I want to discuss why taking the time to write good META Descriptions in your site will help you stand out from the crowd and drive traffic to your site.
Don’t use the same META Description for everypage
I see so many websites using the same Meta Description on every single page, and the only reason I can think of why they do this is to save time. But if you wrote the same Twitter post everyday – with same wording – but the only thing that you changed was the link, would you click it? The time it takes to create good META Description isn’t the important factor here. The important point is that if you don’t create good META Descriptions people won’t click through to your site! And if that happens then you’ve wasted all that time writing excellent content…
Don’t be tempted by thinking “Any META description is better than nothing at all” – it’s not…! Why? Because the search result for every page on your site will come out looking the same. This is definately not what you want – you want your site to cover a range of topics and search phrases, and having a zillion pages that look the same is just asking for Google to treat them as duplicate content!
If you can’t create a unique META Description for every single page leave it blank and let the search engines create it from your page content. This isn’t all that bad as search engines do an ok job of creating relevant snippets. So you should only replace this snippet if you are going to be improving it.
META Descriptions are vital
Why? Because if you have ‘relevant’ META Descriptions for each page of your site or blog then search engines like Google will use this within the search results rather than creatingtheir own from your page content. Try to see it like Twitter (micro-content): in about 140 characters can you sum up what your page is about enough to convince the person reading it that the link to your page will give them all the information they need?
Search Phrase
In order to encourage search engines to use your META Description you’ll need to include the search phrase that people are using in there. Write first and foremost for the searcher so remember you’re trying to get them interested enough to click through to your website.
…And finally
What the above is all about is don’t give your site visitors a reason to leave your site before they actually get there in the first place!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my gawd! im totally guilty of doing the same description on every page thing.
Oh dear, more work for me then. SEO stuff has always been a trial for me, and they seem to change the rules constantly, so just when you think you have a handle on it- poof! changed again.
I never thought about it like twitter before- because no one has ever explained it like that before. Im such a novice! Back to the drawing board then…..
Hi @Robertaward
Apologies for th elate reply to your comment – On hols atm so being a bit slack …
Everyone's a little bit guilty of thinking that it's best to have something in the META Description than nothing – but hopefully you're now seeing that it's worth taking the time to create unique Meta Descriptions for each page
Thanks for commenting Robbie