Why the Meta Description Tag matters!

Not the best introduction to your business is it?

On the actual page, this text was part of a footer in small text and was not at all noticeable, but because

(a) there was no description tag
(b) the page had very little text on it, and
(c) the designer had used a graphic for the company name

Google had chosen the only part of the page with the business name in for their snippet.

And the problem isn't just limited to pages with only a small amount of text on them. Here's another example from a design business that had their terms and conditions on the contact page:

Again, there was no description tag, so Google returned the first mention it could find of the business name in the page text. The meaning is out of context, but it's not what you'd want a prospective client to see first.

How to check that this isn't happening to you:

You can search Google for your business name, but if your business gets mentioned on the web a fair bit you might want to narrow the search down. Run this search instead:

site:www.yoursite.xtn

This will show you all the pages from your site that Google knows about. If you have a larger site then try this instead:

site:www.yoursite.xtn "Your Business Name"

This will return a list of pages from your site where Google found your business name.

Now check the snippet and see if you're happy with it. Not happy? Then make sure you write a description tag for that page that includes your business name. Keep the number of characters to a maximum of 150/155. Once Google has the new version in its index, check again.

Description Tags for a better Click Through Rate

We've seen how the absence of a description tag can be a problem, but there's a lot more to the use (and usefulness) of the description tag.

If your page's description tag is displayed in Google's results as a snippet, then a well-written one will encourage a searcher to click through to your site. However, Google will often return different snippets for the same page depending on the search term used.

How can you make sure that as many searchers as possible see your description tag?

A comprehensive stats program will allow you to check which pages in your site are being found for what keywords.

In Google Analytics go to Content / Top Content, and choose a popular page.

On the right hand side click the 'Entrance Keywords' link to see a list of terms that the page was found for.

Run those searches yourself and see if your description tag is being displayed.

Of course, this only helps you with clicks you're already getting. What about searches where you're ranking but getting very few or no clicks?

Here's where Google's Webmaster Tools comes in handy. The ten 'Top Search Queries' for your site are displayed on your dashboard, and you can click through to view many more.

Google displays them in order of popularity so you can easily see those you should study.

It's impossible to get your description tag to display for every search that brings up your page in the results, but using your site statistics and rankings data you can work out the most important terms - the ones you should really care about.

Now you can try to write a description tag that will:

• Feature the main terms the page is being found for - not because this affects rankings, but to encourage Google to use it as a snippet.
• Encourage people to click - because they see what they're looking for as part of an attention-grabbing advert for your page.

Here's Google's official guidance on descriptions and snippets

And here's a great article about writing description tags (including when you should consider NOT using one).