SEO Tip: Using Description Meta Tags

The description meta tag as we mentioned in our last installment of SEO Tips, is the only meta tag that holds any weight with major search engines like Google (keep in mind, it is not used for ranking purposes, rather it effects the way your site is seen in search engine results).

Description meta tags should be formatted like this:

<meta name=”description” content=”description of the page – do not use the same description for all pages” />

It is important to keep in mind that you will need to use a different meta description for each page on your site (otherwise it is more or less useless to your users). The meta description should accurately describe the content of your page.

Why we choose not to use meta description tags:

When a user searches for something on a search engine like Google, they are looking to find a website that has content matching their query – or in other words, they want to find a site that is relevant to their search. You may notice that when you search on Google, certain parts of the description under each site listed are bolded – this shows the user that each site listed has the keyword they are looking for and more importantly shows the context in which it is used.

Consider the following search result for ‘LUCID Public Relations’ – this user is searching for our company. The fourth result down, lucidcommunications.ca has ‘LUCID’ and ‘pr’ highlighted, but given the context that both terms are used, the user would be able to tell that it is not a link to the right company.

Whether you decide to use meta description tags or not – just keep in mind that by not using them you are allowing Google more flexibility to show users why your page is relevant to their search (and keeping irrelevant clicks off your site, because they will bounce anyways).

When to use meta description tags?

We do think it is appropriate to use the meta description tag on pages that have little or no visible text (although this issue would be better resolved by adding more) and on pages that have only pictures (say, for example, an image gallery – but again, providing accurate text descriptions of each picture is probably a better way to go).

What is your preference for meta description tags? Why? Let us know!