April 6, 2011

One often-overlooked aspect of your website can have big impact on your search traffic: the page description.

This element of your website's HTML code is one of the Meta tags that don't actually show up when a visitor lands on a Web page. However, the Meta description does appear when a page on your site shows up in search results.

"They are extremely important," says Zeke Camusio, founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet marketing agency, because, when searching, "people scan through them quickly and click on the one that looks the best."

Compare these examples of good and not-so-good page descriptions, delivered in search results when we searched Google for "architect."

"Architect and designer Eric Corey Freed specializes in organic and environmental design."

"Thank you for your interest in BAR Architects. If you have arranged for a personal tour, please enter the provided password in the field below."

While both listings showed up on the first page of results, the second, for BAR Architects, not only provides no information about the company's services, it gives the false impression that the site can't even be accessed without a password.

"I would guess that the second one did not have a Meta description tag at all. In that case, all the search engines will pull a snippet of text off the page that does have the word in it," says Jill Whalen, CEO of High Rankings, a company that optimizes websites for search.

Seen around the Web

However, Whalen adds, you should be aware that the search engines don't always display the description you provide in the Meta tag. It depends on what words the searcher puts into the query box. If a search engine decides one of your pages is a good match for a query, even though the search terms don't appear in your page description, it will automatically display text on the page that does contain the term.

A carefully crafted Meta description may show up in other spots as well as in search results, including when you post links to Facebook and LinkedIn, according to Whalen.

"So you can control what shows up there," she adds. "It makes a nice description if you do it well."

SEO-neutral

Words in the Meta tag no longer matter for search engine optimization, these experts say.

In the early days of search, search engines used information in the Meta tags to determine a page's relevance, leading to the practice of stuffing them with hundreds of keywords in order to make a page rank higher. Nowadays, search engines ignore them when scoring for relevance.

Nevertheless, Camusio says, "It's one of the best investments of your time. It will take you minutes to write it and give you lots of benefit."

Here are their tips for hard-working, high-value Meta description tags.

Don't guess

Page descriptions should be keyword rich, Whalen says, but you should still follow good search optimization practices with them. Use a suggestion tool to find out the most searched-on terms to include.

Pay attention to length

"You should definitely use the two lines Google gives you," Camusio says. But stick to 160 characters, otherwise Google will insert an ellipsis—and you can't control where. This could make your message less intelligible and lower the click-through rate.

Write it like an ad

Meta descriptions need to capture keywords, but they also should make an immediate appeal, says Camusio. "Call attention to the problem, and then give a solution with a call to action." For example, "Are you suffering from back pain? Spend more than 5 hours sitting? You need an ergonomic chair, so check out our selection now."

Include contact information

If your business is based on getting phone calls from prospects, rather than inviting customers to browse on-site catalogs, go ahead and put your phone number into the Meta tag, Whalen suggests. When your phone number appears in the search result, many people will stop searching and pick up the phone.

Plan your site

You should spread your site's content into multiple pages, each with their own unique page descriptions, Whalen advises. Many website owners do the former but neglect the latter. This could lower your rankings with the search engines, which ding you for duplicate content.

Image credit: jacqueline-w

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Susan Kuchinskas, Article, search engine optimization, website, marketing strategies, Susan Kuchinskas, Jill Whalen, Zeke Camusio