Forum Moderators: open
with a title like:
Sell/Buy Collectible Widgets
what would be the best description:
1-- sell and buy new and used cheap Us, Europe, Africa, UK, Australia, South Pacific collectible widgets
or
2--sell and buy cheap new and used collectible worlwide widgets
the first example has all the subcategories listed, the second has none.
Your help would be really appreciated to understand if is worthwile to include the subcategories keyword inside the description or not.
thanks
fraudcop
First off, google and MSN ignore description tag.
Then,your subcategories hasn't any relevance for SEs ranking.
So,use your second description.
Sorry. But I experimented to build up a page with ONLY description tag as unique keyworded text, and it didn't display...
Unfortunately that type of testing is inconclusive. I've seen quite a few searches return exact snippets from META Description Tags in Google. Use your META Description Tag [webmasterworld.com] as it was intended to be used which is to provide a short description of the overall page content. If it utilizes phrases from your page title element, <h> tags, and first couple of paragraphs of content, there is a good chance that it will show as a snippet in Google.
Google already extracts a keyword related text snippet from the body tag of the page. Why to add description? It's only a waste of time...
Not from my perspective it isn't. I'd rather have Google showing my exact META Descriptions instead of snippets that may or may not make much sense to the prospective visitor scanning the SERPs.
Let's forget about Google for a moment. There are other resources who may use the META Description Tag.
That's true.Other SEs/resources appreciate description tag.But i was talking about Google.
I'd rather have Google showing my exact META Descriptions instead of snippets that may or may not make much sense to the prospective visitor scanning the SERPs.
You're correct,yes.But you can get the same result by optimizing keyword closer text,as I did for my pages,and they looks fine...
It is up to you what you decide to do. Personally I recommend the use of the META Description Tag for Google and the other search engines.
specter, check your Sticky Mail. I sent you prime examples of Google using the exact META Description Tag.
That's true. Other SEs/resources appreciate description tag. But I was talking about Google.
Okay, somewhat contradictory there. So, you do not use the META Description Tag at all, correct? If that is the case, what about those other resources who do use it? I'm assuming then that you are targeting only Google. I'd prefer to keep this topic general in nature and not focus specifically on Google. There are plenty of specific topics in the Google News forum that relate to this issue.
But you can get the same result by optimizing keyword closer text, as I did for my pages, and they looks fine...
I actually put this one to the test myself over the past couple of years and still do it today. The pages with META Descriptions are showing exact META Descriptions in Google based on the search query. The pages without META Descriptions are showing snippets that are being pieced together from various content on the page.
Okay, somewhat contradictory there. So, you do not use the META Description Tag at all, correct? If that is the case, what about those other resources who do use it? I'm assuming then that you are targeting only Google.
Exactly.
I'd prefer to keep this topic general in nature and not focus specifically on Google. There are plenty of specific topics in the Google News forum that relate to this issue.
That's OK. ;-)
so I'm sure that using more keywords inside the descrition would give more chances to being in SERPs ,but it suspenct I would loose ranking having many keywords.
Will my ranking be diluted if I use more keywords?
More keyword in your description tag don't improve your ranking,as it is related to the body tag keyword density.
What Pageoneresult said is that with a proper construction,you can have exact descriptions in your SERP results ,that look much better than the "random" text automatically extracted from the body tag.
But this hasn't nothing to do with improving ranking.
Isn't it Pageoneresult?
But this hasn't nothing to do with improving ranking. Isn't it Pageoneresult?
Based on my experience, I'd have to disagree. There may be a ranking/placement (not PageRank) improvement when using a properly structured META Description Tag. I've taken pages that were sitting in the 11-20 positions that did not have description tags and added them. Within a week or so, those pages moved to positions 1-10.
Please keep in mind that there are many other factors that come into play when discussing overall positioning. The META Description may play a role in that overall equation. Based on my testing and experience, it has for me anyway. ;)
P.S. Using obscure terms in your metadata that are not on the page or are not specific to the page is not a valid testing method as it just won't work. Your metadata needs to be tightly focused to the page content.
Based on my experience, I'd have to disagree. There may be a ranking/placement (not PageRank) improvement when using a properly structured META Description Tag. I've taken pages that were sitting in the 11-20 positions that did not have description tags and added them. Within a week or so, those pages moved to positions 1-10.
Well,I learnt a new thing.I always disregarded description tag ( also due to the fact that I was focused on Google only).I'll try to use them...
" red widgets, black widgets, green widgets, brown widgets" - that are listed in the page is ok,
but using words like:
"new & used" "collectable" "cheap" "deals" that are not listed in the page is not that good?
fraudcop
That are not listed in the page is not that good?
It gets a little tricky here because of stemming and other related issues. I typically use content from the page title element, <h> tags and first couple of paragraphs of content to build my META Description. That is a natural process for me as I focus my content to the topic of the page. I'm targeting a few specific phrases per page so adding in a list of categories, etc. that are not mentioned on the page is not something I would suggest.
For example, if its an entry page into a specific category and you've got a list of widgets on that page, then you might want to include that list of widgets in a carefully crafted META Description.
If it is a page that is linked from that entry page and focuses on a specific widget, then you might want to focus your META Description Tag specifically on that widget and nothing else.
