If you have spent any time wondering how to improve your websites performance with organic search you have probably heard a lot about SEO. Along the way you have been subjected to a mixture of truth and error. One of the biggest errors made with search engine optimization these days is the idea that meta tags don’t matter any more.

So, for all you DIY website optimizers out there we need to bust the myths! And our first target is...

Meta Tag Page Descriptions

Many webmasters only touch meta tags as an after thought. But according to the Google Search Engine Optimizations Starter Guide (available has the downloadable PDF file) the description meta tag is the second most important element on your web pages contributing to good listings in the search engine result pages.

The Page Description Meta Tag Is Important Because:

• It helps you get your page indexed properly with the search engines
• It is often used as a snippet of sample text from your site in the search results (especially when it contains your target phrase).
• If your site is listed in the Open Directory Project, Google might use the description provided there. If you want to prevent Google and other search engines from displaying ODP data, you should add the following meta tag to your pages: (this will only prevent search engines that support meta tags from displaying ODP data).

Here is what the Page Description Meta Tag Looks Like On Your site:

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You can see this by accessing "view source" in your favorite browser.

FireFox = View -> Page Source

Internet Explorer = View -> Source

Description meta tags should offer a concise summary of your page’s content.

Simply write a page description that describes the content of the page in plain language and using your targeted keywords and phrases. Here are some handy tips.

• Don’t make the mistake of using the description meta tag to provide a description of our entire site. The search engines only see pages not entire sites and they are looking for unique page descriptions.
• Don’t use catch-all descriptions like “my web page”. Create unique page descriptions for each page. If you are using a CMS system make sure the program has a way to insert unique page descriptions.
• Don’t make your descriptions too short. Craft a well written summary, or even a sales pitch that contains your targeted keywords and phrases.
• Don’t stuff your description with excessive and repetitive keywords. Once or twice is plenty.
• Don’t make your descriptions too long – aim for about 150 characters. Copying the entire content of your page in the description tag is a bad practice. The search engine spiders are looking for a summary guide to what is on the page. Give them some help and you’ll be rewarded.
• Don’t use boiler plate page descriptions across your entire website. Using the same meta descriptions “site-wide” or for a large number of pages could force Google to show only one page in the results, sending the rest in the supplemental results index.

A well written page description may not be visible to you or visitors to your site but it is highly visible in the search engine results pages. Your page description is often the text that searchers see in the Google results pages. What your page description says could determine whether the searcher clicks on your listing or decides to move on.

Hopefully you are now convinced that the lowly page description meta tag is very important to successful search engine optimization.