The Meta Description Tag is an HTML tag that provides the search engine with the summary text of the page to display in its search results (or SERP). This tag, although very useful to help the user understand your page at a glance, has no real impact on the natural referencing of your page.
Writing the Meta Description tag
This Meta Description tag, present in the Head of the HTML code of your website, takes the following tagged form:
<Meta name=”description” content=”Description de la page” />
A Meta Description tag, unlike a Title tag, is written with an orphan tag, ie unique. If this reserved space is not taken into account in Google’s relevance algorithm, it is nonetheless important to improve the click rate of your page by giving it a more enticing and descriptive side.
For the page you are currently on, here is the Meta Description tag as you can find it in the source code:
<Meta name=”description” content=”La Balise Meta Description est une balise HTML qui fournit au moteur de recherche le résumé de la page à afficher dans ses résultats de recherche (ou SERP).”/>
The Meta Description tag in the SERPs
When you choose your Meta Description tag, it has no impact on the natural referencing of your page. On the other hand of on page SEO for Roofing Company, the Meta Description tag impacts the choice of the user in the SERPs, the results of the query that the user has just typed.
Google chooses to display these results to the query “how to make cookies”. Now, it’s up to you to choose which recipe you want to take, and implicitly, you will let yourself be tempted by the Meta Description that seems to you the most interesting or the most promising. It is this parameter that increases the click rate once you have positioned your page in the first positions.
How to properly write your Meta Description tag
Every page on your site should have a catchy Meta Description tag to best describe your page to optimize click-through rate. In addition, this description must be unique because the opposite means content from duplicate pages or several pages that would target the same keyword.
Why fill in my Meta Description tag?
Because if you don’t, Google will write it automatically, at the risk of not understanding exactly what your page was about and what information was needed to attract your reader. What Google does is look for the phrase you searched for in your page and display it.
When you search for information on the “Porsche 997 Carrera” (to avoid losing anyone, it’s a car), Google gives you the SERPs that correspond to this car.
The title seems relevant, but the description of the article misses it. Because Google, while browsing this article, spotted that the page pointed to the information “Porsche 997” and “Carrera” twice in the same sentence. Relevant information in his eyes, but which is irrelevant for the user. Very low click chance.
What optimizations should I bring to my Meta Description tag?
The key points for writing your optimized Meta Description tag are:
- Keywords: Insert the main keywords for which your page is optimized, this will show the user that your page responds perfectly to his request.
- Size: Do not exceed 250 characters for the description otherwise Google will truncate it.
- Your page description should match your page title and content. In case of incompatibility, you will lose points in the eyes of Google.
- Use sentences with verbs, moreover it will give meaning to your description.
- Write it in the form of a well-constructed sentence, not just with meaningless added keywords.
- Create absolutely unique Meta descriptions on each page.