HTML Optimization : the Description Meta tag (2nd part)
In our previous article “HTML Optimization : the Description Meta tag (1st part)”, we tried to precisely define the Description Meta tag. In this part, you will learn how to calibrate the Description Meta tag for an optimal SEO.
A different Description Meta tag for each web page.
Each page has its own description. This description must reflect the real content of the page. Otherwise, the deceived user will soon leave your page. Remember, converted users worth far more than a great amount of traffic. In other words, choose quality to quantity (meaning the audience you target). Therefore it is highly recommended not to repeat the same description on every page of the website. Because this description would be too generic. In theory, you should not have two pages of your website with the same Description Meta tag.
An understandable description rather than keyword jam
It is highly recommended not to make your Description Meta tag a silly succession of keywords. Spamming with many keywords is definitely out of the fashion, relevant content is now king. One or two sentences properly built are more valuable than a “serial keyword” ;-).
In fact, as mentionned in “HTML Optimization : the Description Meta tag (1st part)”, the Description Meta tag is not directly taken in account in the SEO. However, it enables you to enlight your page among the search engine results (SERP) and then to make your page more attractive than your competitors. You should catch users, pushing them to click on your web page.
If you look at the Google results for the keyword “mp3 player”, you will see that it is the Description Meta tag of the web pages (circled in red in the following screenshot) which is used by Google in the result list.
Try to build your Description Meta tag with your best slogans, without beeing too catchy.
For example, <META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Portable MP3 Players - MP3.com offers MP3 player reviews of the best MP3 players available.”>
Avoid, <META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”XXXXXXXX : MP3 player review / best MP3 players”>
Not so important Keywords
You do not need to include your major keywords in the Meta Description tag. We insist, the Description Meta tag is not directly taken in account in your web page ranking among the SERP (Search Engine Result Pages). They just “help” search engine presenting your web pages in the SERP.
For example, <META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Portable MP3 Players - MP3.com offers MP3 player reviews of the best MP3 players available.”>.
Avoid, <META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”MP3.com : portable mp3 pPlayers, mp3 players, mp3 player review, mp3 download”>.
The size
The optimal size of the Description Meta tag changes from a search engine to another. However, SEO professionals generally agree to set it to 250 characters, which is about 60 words.
The accented characters
If you use accented characters in your Description Meta tags, you must specify the charset thanks to the CHARSET Meta tag.
The following example set the charset of the document to “ISO-8859-1” (which allows the use of accented characters).
<META http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1“>
Here is a complete example with Description and Charset Meta well-formed tags,
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META http-equiv=content-type content="text/html; charset= ISO-8859-1">
<TITLE>...</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="... españa ...">
... other head elements ...
</HEAD>
<BODY>
... body of the document ...
</BODY>
</HTML>At last, the HTML entities solution is another possibility on which the Meta/Charset has no impact.
Here is a complete example of a Description Meta tag without Meta/Charset but with HTML encoded and well-formed.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>...</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="... Visita España ...">
... other head elements ...
</HEAD>
<BODY>
... body of the document ...
</BODY>
</HTML>The “ñ” is now encoded in HTML with the special character ñ
Applying these tips should improve your click-trough rate in the SERP.
