Well, hi there, my fellow SEO comrades! Some interesting meta description tag news from Google’s Matt Cutts. Here at Search Engine Academy, we teach that you are much better off on your SEO efforts and strategy if you create unique, useful meta descriptions for each of your pages.
You can watch the video, which I encourage.
Matt sort of says what I just wrote about meta description best practices, but he takes it a step further and says that first off, having duplicate meta description tags are no-nos, and you should totally have Google Webmaster Tools set up to tell you if your pages have any. All good; I totally agree.
Changes to Meta Description Tags
Then he says just make up description tags for the most important pages on your site, such as your home screen and probably your biggest money-making pages that feature your products and services. Matt then says it’s OK to have blank meta descriptions, but again emphasized–NO DUPLICATE META DESCRIPTION TAGS, UMKAAAAAY?
So that’s a change–blank meta description tags won’t kill you. But let me bring this up:
If there’s no meta description tag, or if Google isn’t real happy with it, the search engine will develop a rich snippet from some of the page content. OK, that’s cool too, but I’ve always been of the mind that a compelling meta description with a great title helps your CTR, which is true.
So, if you decide to skip the whole meta name description effort, but you aren’t real certain that the page content will compel the searcher, what do you do? I see two things:
Re-do the content on the page so it’s totally butt-kicking for your reader and for Google to create a rich snippet.
Take it one step further and if possible, use schema.org to create a rich snippet of your own choosing that may be used in lieu of Google making the decision for you.
Personally, I use the meta description field to my best advantage. What do you currently do and are you planning on changing your on-page SEO strategy and process? Let me know in the comments below.
And going a little further, now that you know this, are you planning on reviewing your pages to see if there opportunities to use the applicable schema.org? I use it for my publicly scheduled classes, and I’ve had good success in getting more sign ups. Again, let me know in the comments below, and thanks for participating!
Until next time, stay between the ditches!
All the best,