Unless you have taken a computer class about website design, chances are pretty good that you have never hard of a meta description tag, much less have any idea of how to use it to maximize your search engine optimization.
What is a Meta Description Tag? 
First things first, the meta description tag is the first part of your URL address, the part that follows the www. Most web based businesses use their company name for their meta tag. For years no one really thought much about the effect of the Meta tag had on their search rank, but right now the Meta tag is making a comeback.
In addition to being a part of your home web address, when search engines like Google and Yahoo are putting together a brief summary of the website they use the meta tag. This description is why it is so important that you have a Meta tag that accurately describes you internet based company. The only other thing that the search engines use to describe your website is the series of keywords that you provided.
The History of the Meta Description Tag
When the internet was first starting to make its way into the average families home during the lat 1990’s and early 2000’s was when Meta tags were an extremely important part of search engine optimization. During this time period the search engines relied mostly on the websites description and Meta tag to determine the websites page ranking, but as more and more websites appeared the search engines were forced to get more creative in the way they ranked each individual website. The biggest problem with this method of ranking pages is that there was no way to determine if the content of the website was actually relevant, that is why search engines switched to key words and links to determine a websites page ranking.
Why you Need Meta Description Tag
Recently meta tags have started to become more important, Having an awesome meta tag won’t really help your page ranking, but what it will do is improve the brief summery that is posted under your website when someone does a search, It was the one thing that people use to determine if they should visit your website or one of the ones that is listed on the same page.
In order to lure a potential customer away from one of your competitors’ website and to yours, you should make sure that the brief summary of your website is well crafted, targets your ideal customers, and engaging.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:39 am
I don’t think that there is any SEO value using the meta description tag, but there is lots of traffic value if you word it correctly. As it is used as a lure, the description content must contain the bait needed to bring home the traffic.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:48 am
You can’t say the meta description does not have any SEO value. After all this works as the summery of the page. And if your keyword is present in the meta description if may help in getting good rank. But I am not 100% about this, it’s hard to understand the search engines.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
@ Split5 - That is why I said, I don’t think there is any SEO value, because I could be wrong.
I have just changed one of my blogs description meta tag to see if it changes its keyword rankings in the search engines. Will be interesting to see what happens.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I think the main value in the meta description lies in converting traffic to your site with a well written description but there could also be some seo benefits to the wording.
When it comes to meta and seo I think there is more seo value in the wording of the meta title…. I have seen benefits of this previously and am running another test of it on another site.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I mostly think of the description as the hook, line and sinker to get them to click the URL to visit the site. That is the biggest value and I agree with you on that.
Let me know what happens with you test, I would tend if changes were made to the meta description and search engine rankings changes for your keywords, then it should have some SEO value. At least, I would hope so.
April 13th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Bruce- I agree with you. Meta description has a greater importance in converting traffic to your website. A well written Meta Description forces viewers to click on the website url.
I am also going to change the meta description of one of my website. I will let you all know what happens.
Patrik