Malav Shukla

Importance of Meta Description Tag

All search engines do not give very high prominence to the Meta Description Tag and may generate a description on the fly while listing your web page in SERP. However, in some search engines, a good Meta Description Tag might help a page to rank higher for your targeted search terms. This holds true for Flash, Frame or All Image sites that have no content as well as some high importance websites, where the search term is not found in the text. In such cases, some search engines pick up the exact Meta Description Tag and display it in its SERP, just below the Title Tag. Hence, it is important to write a crisp and enticing Meta Description Tag that includes your important keyword phrases and manages to interest your user, thus making her click on your entry.

Keyword Phrases and Meta Description Tag

Include your most relevant and important keyword phrases in your page’s Meta Description Tag. As in the case of Title Tag, focus on the same keyword phrases as you used in your page’s Title Tag and body text. Fewer and highly targeted search phrases can boost your web page’s relevance in the search engines results. Hence, stress should be on writing a brief yet informative description for your web page. 

The Meta Description Tag of your web page should not read like a collection of a keywords, but should be written as an informative and interesting summary of your web page. 

Dos and Don’ts of a good Meta Description Tag 

1. Excessive keyword repetition should be avoided. Instead, pay attention to the sequence in which your keywords appear. Your most important terms should be placed in the beginning.
2. Make sure each page on your web site has a different and a unique Meta Description Tag using the keyword phrases that are relevant to that web page.
3. A Meta Description Tag of 25-30 words should do fine.
4. The most important keyword phrases should, ideally be placed at the beginning of your Meta Description Tag, which increases your chances of better Search Engine Rankings.

 Basic elements of a good Description Tag 

1. Write it in sentence structure.
2. Should be relevant to the similar 25-30 word (under 150 characters) description of the first text within the visible page.
3. Do not repeat your keywords more than 3 times in description tag. If you need, make alternatives (e.g. ‘prescription’ and ‘prescriptions’ can be used 3 times each).
4. Minimize the use of “stop words” such as “and, the, of”.
5. Keyword phrases that appear earliest in the Meta description will generally receive higher ranking value.
6. Try to include this tag in all pages by describing the content and it should be unique.
7. Don’t load your description with only keywords.
8. Strive for 5-10% keyword density.
9. Use different Meta description tag for each page.