Meta descriptions and you
by Ian on October 30, 2009
Ask anyone who’s done SEO work and they’ll tell you meta tags (description and keywords) don’t influence rankings. If you check on some of the top forums you can find some pretty serious debates on whether or not you should even use them. Quick answer, yes. Smaller sites can easily edit, and larger sites can generate them. Plus it’s a healthy part of a balanced website.
Well, as far as meta descriptions go, you should probably do it! Yeah, let’s get excited. Why? To control how you appear in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Because if it contains your most important keywords then it will show up in Google search results, compared to the possibility of it pulling random, sometimes truncated text from parts of the page. Maybe you want that, but if it’s not looking good, you can help it.
The thing to remember is that it’s visual, it won’t affect your rankings. Also, the things people look at the most are title then URL, but anyway, it’s there and it’s easy.
Meta descriptions and keyword tags don’t influence rankings. If you check on some of the top forums you can find some pretty serious debates on whether or not you should even use them. My quick answer though, is that you should at least add meta descriptions.
Why? To control how you appear in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Here’s one:
If it contains your most important keywords then it will most likely show up in Google search results, compared to the possibility of it pulling random, sometimes truncated text from parts of the page. Maybe you want that, but if you want to take more control you can.
The thing to remember is that it’s visual; it won’t affect your rankings. Questions? Just ask.
