Here's a dry one for ya:
I was just wondering what the standards say about how to use the META-description element? Is it a site wide description or supposed to contain different content describing every single page (if needed) ?
W3 says: "The purpose of the meta element is to provide meta-information about the document."
What exactly is the document in this case? Do they mean a HTML Document / "a single page"?
What search engines like in this case is kind of irrelevant to this question. They like alot of things. And are not necessarily compliant with standards.
- Great question. I'd really like to see an example of a good meta description. For instance, what would be a great meta description be for this question page?
- I'd love to see a great example of a meta description. For instance, what would a good meta description be for this question page?
4 answers
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The document is the page, not the site. The description should be about that particular page.
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Yup. The best way to understand this is to look at google's Webmaster Tools - when you add your site to that it will give you warnings about things that are wrong.
One of these warnings is about the meta descriptions being the same for different pages. Each page should have a unique meta description that accurately conveys what that page's information is about :)
- Thanks! Fine tool that. But Google isn't the same as W3 Standard? Alltough Google try to follow/support standards it isn't the definitive source?
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The contents of the META description tag is usually what search engines will show under your title in the results list.
The Meta Description Tag needs to be kept brief yet informative. Usually a description of about 25-30 words should be fine. Keywords and key phrases should be included in the Meta Description Tag, though care should be taken not to repeat them too often. The META Description tag should be customized for each page depending on the content theme and target keywords of the particular page.
The Meta Description Tag should be aimed at your websites audience, tempting them to click on the link to your site.
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In addition to the existing answers, you should also give your pages unique <title>s, using the same logic as your META description and keyword tags, i.e. keep them concise and relevant. All of this information will appear in Google's search results, and by making each page unique in all three aspects will allow the searcher to get straight to the page they want, not just to the domain they want.
- That I know, I was more wondering what the standards say about META/single page. But thanks anyway. I'm not the only one reading this :)
