Page 2 - Meta description

I actively and with great enthusiasm participated in that thread and the general thought that came out [as Meta Description - paraphrasing]

I got lots of clients and millions of pages and I do everything I can to create an edge - so I use Meta Descriptions - because it doesn't hurt!

What actually is important about them then? Using a claim of "it doesn't hurt" doesn't sound very important does it? ...surely spitting on the sidewalk each morning doesn't hurt either, or wearing you underwear inside out... why aren't these 'as' important.

Meta Description doesn't impact on ranks...

AND NO ONE - can show they impact on CTR...

...so what do they actually do that you can show?

...so what important about them?

If you use them - THAT'S GREAT... but that in itself doesn't make anything important.

<added>Negative rep -- I STRONGLY DISAGREE... actually show I'm wrong and I'll ask admin to remove it</added>

I dont know how much time people are going to take to digest the fact that Meta Tags are as worthy as a comb for a bald person.......

I dont feel any problem if someone wants to use them, but to sing praises for the worthless meta tags and in the process, creating the same impression on the new fellas in the industry, is something that does'nt goes down well with me.

How please read the full thread each and every post in mentioned thread.....
Meta tag descriptions is worthless......

I use that n my blogs in submitting it to some directories. It doesn't hurt my blog.

While the question asks "will it hurt" and you're right "it won't"... the greater question [the more appropriate question] is "will it help"?

... I would "assume" that the poster doesn't wish to waste an massive amount of time doing every page... thus ask their question... and the 100% absolutely correct answer is...

Deleting or not using the tag is a better approach.

Meta keywords are not much of use but not meta description as i know. It is one way to market ur site in few words may be. Based on relevancy of title tag and description (the keywords) the results are thrown up.

... but if you don't have a Meta Description OR if the phrase isn't in the Meta Description the actual page content is shown as a snippet...

Are you saying that a Meta Description does a better job?

If so how?

I think Sally wants to say an catchy Meta Description plays important role to market your business.
Second thing is this is very true if phrase is not available in Catchy Description then there is very very less probability that your catchy description will be displayed in snippet.

How Meta Description can do better job: Well this is just my opinion:
suppose i have very nice & informative content on my site and that even in very detailed/ described way.
On the same page If I will try to squeeze that detailed content to few abstracted lines. then probably some will be looking to stuff those abstracted lines into Meta Description. and by grace if you got customer query which is matching some phrase in your catchy/abstracted description then SERPs will display that same catchy description and that can play some role there.
Rest this is just any open discussion you are always most welcome to add

Whether true or untrue - just because it sounds good doesn't mean there are any supporting facts that collaborate that position... you imply that "catchy" entices searchers to click... [e.g. increases CTR]

That then should have VOLUMES of supporting data... got any?

Here are some facts that have 100% true and backed by research [in the 100's of millions - thus minimal margin of error]

1. 40% of searchers from all search engines never go past #1 [unfortunately there isn't any data that determines if that #1 is 'start of organic results' or page top PPC listing]

KEYNOTE: this by default makes your 'catchy assumption' reduced by 40% potential [that a huge drop]

2. 68% of all searchers don't go past top 3 [that includes the 40% that don't go past top #1]

KEYNOTE: by default we haven't even included "whatever is written"... the context... over 2/3 of all searchers believe that when they type a query into a search engine they will get a return of "exactly what they requested" - and search engines are getting really good at only providing relevant returns. [unlike pre-2000]

3. 78% of all searchers NEVER READ search results they merely scan for the query they typed in.

KEYNOTE: by default so long as the queried search term is easy to see in the listing - they click.

It's worth mentioning that keyword visibility in Title Element is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT and search engine bold the found terms regardless of where they are to make these stand out.

4. AdWord 101 - the most catchy Adword in the most prominent page position [sidebar #1] still only gets 10% of the clicking traffic...

KEYNOTE: with the exception of China (and other Asian languages) that read from right to left... TOP LEFT beat snappy every day of the year and twice on Tuesdays.

The facts - if the phrase is in the title and you're in top positions... a description written by a monkey will get the same number of clicks...

One additional note: a flash page without any description what-so-ever will get the same number of clicks as a description produced by snippets or Meta Descripion so long as the queried phrase is in the title...

That's a very easy experiment to do.



In the absence of any real evidence 'opinions' are good but you simply can't sit and pass that off as qualified advice... 78% of the searching public type, search, and click... and back-button use is far easier than reading catchy descriptions first...

... [my opinion] rarely will you find a page that doesn't have the keyphrase in the title so I'd say an additional 20% [now 98%] will read the title & click... supporting evidence... eye-tracking experiments show more eyes go to the #1 position's title than on the #1 position description... and hot spots in the description show BULLEYES on their typed query terms... and not smoothly spread across the width of the description... suggesting - your catchy description isn't as important as you think it is. [http://searchengineland.com/070921-070852.php ...where's the actual reading in these? ... course because they're not "CATCHY ENOUGH" you could guess that's the reason but I would like to see the evidence that "catchy" changes anything]

No matter... all research to date shows - Meta Descriptions are worthless... they just don't hurt.

When you're talking about long term tail description, do you mean the meta keywords?

No, I mean long tail keywords.

Use any keyword research tool...put in the primary keyword on which the article is written...and then pick up keywords that lie somewhere at the middle to the bottom of the keyword list.

Then include those keywords within the text of the article and get some backlinks with those anchors. You can easily rank for those long tail keywords which will give you more traffic from the search engines.

That's a very interesting technique. So you're saying by using the less used keywords, you're more likely to be ranked?