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The
HTML Meta Description Tag
There
is a hidden HTML tag that can improve your search engine ranking,
and motivate people to click through from a search engine to your
Web site. Conversely, if you ignore–or implement poorly–this
tag, it could reduce your performance in search engines.
I
am referring to the Meta Description tag, which can (but doesn't
necessarily) appear in your HTML page's <HEAD> area. This
tag looks something like this:
<meta
name="description" content="This is where the description
of your Web page goes">
You
can see the Description tag of this page by viewing the source
code (Ctrl+U in Netscape; View, Source in Explorer).
The description tag will typically be somewhere within the first
ten lines of code. If you are using Dreamweaver 8, you can automatically
generate the tag by using Insert, HTML, Head Tags, Description.
Then all you need to type is the description.
That's
the how, now what about the why?
Glad
you asked. There are two reasons. First of all, some search engines
give extra weight to text in the description tag. So if someone
searches for the phrase "Fish Emulsion," your page will
rank higher if your Description tag says something like "Fish
emulsion can be used as a fertilizer to increase the yield of your
garden. A concentrated source of nitrogen, fish emulsion also supplies
phosphate and potassium."
This
can boost your search engine rank for particular key words just
the way a properly constructed <TITLE> tag can (see my page
on the TITLE Tag).
Also,
search engines typically display search results as a short page
title followed by a longer description. Some search engines (but
usually not Google) will use the Meta Description tag, if the
page has one. This is why your description tag should target
not only the search engine, but also Internet users who will
be scanning search results for the information they seek. Contrast
the above Fish Emulsion example with the following speculative
description: The
Best Fish Emulsion Web Page on the Internet!
The
first description indicates that you could find information about
gardening and the chemical properties of fish emulsion. The second
description hints that you will find a page produced by a person
with an overblown ego and a poor sense of marketing. Which page
would you rather visit?
What
if I don't write a description tag?
If
you do not have a Meta description tag, the search engine will
create its own description, possibly by taking the first few lines
of your page, or by finding a line with the search term, and using
that. Either way, your page may probably perform better if you
write the description, rather than allowing the search engine to
write it for you.
Does
this affect my rank on a WSU search?
It
depends.
Webinator, The search engine sometimes used for CAHNRS
and Extension Web sites,
is heavily dependent on the Description tag to rank pages.
So by all means, use the tag to improve your ranking on the
CAHNRS and Extension search. Washington State University
uses Google, which disregards the Description tag, so it won't
have a direct effect with Google.
If
I repeat my key words a hundred times in the description tag, that
will get me
a better ranking, right?
This
is a case of Amateur Web Developer vs. Multi-billion-dollar Search
Engine Company. They've already thought of that one, so don't bother.
Even if it worked, would you click through on a search result that
just said "fish emulsion, fish emulsion, fish emulsion,
fish emulsion, fish emulsion, fish emulsion, fish emulsion!"?
I sure wouldn't.
How
long should the description be?
Take
a look at the descriptions given in the results of several search
engines. The search engine will decide when and where to truncate
the description. Don't get too hung up on making sure that the description
will fit, but by the same token, don't ignore all good sense. A
good rule of thumb is to use about 20-30 words. |
