SEO – The Description Tag

Just yesterday we went through the SEO starting point, the Meta Title Tag. Now that we have learnt the first important element in the ON Page SEO where we shared the precise topic of discussion in the web page through the title, lets move on to the next important element i.e. the “Meta Description Tag”.

The name of the Tag tells us about its attributed. Yes, the Meta Description tag, describes the content of the web page. It is the summery that gives the search engines and the web visitors a fair idea about the content of the web page. Google SEO starter guide describes the Meta Description Tag as, “A page's description meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of what the page is about. Whereas a page's title may be a few words or a phrase, a page's description meta tag might be a sentence or two or a short paragraph.”

The Meta Description Tag can be further explained as the snippet of the text displayed by the search engine below the title tag when the user’s query is displayed on the search engine results pages. I will again refer to the Google – SEO starter guide that tells us about the Description tag.

“Description meta tags are important because Google might use them as snippets for your pages. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Alternatively, Google might use your site's description in the Open Directory Project if your site is listed there (learn how to prevent search engines from displaying ODP data). Adding description Meta tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet.”

The reason we base our discussion on Google guidelines is obvious. Google’s importance as the leader of the search engine industry cannot be underestimated; hence, all of us strive for visibility on the Google, hoping for success of our web presence.

Optimizing Website for Yahoo

We see and hear a lot of chat for Google SEO. In this hype of Google, we have somewhat ignored other important search engines. Yahoo for one has been there when Google was born and was the most used search engine alongside MSN. Every since Google occupied the search sphere, Yahoo has been sidelined but is still being used by handful of people who prefer to search through Yahoo as well to search the web for products, services and information.

The point to note here is that we must not forget that optimizing our websites for Yahoo as well is equally important. We get web visitors from Yahoo and some really serious ones too. While preparing our websites for search engine we must in build factors that are equally important for Yahoo optimization as well.

The important factor is that we cannot optimize separately for different search engines i.e. if we optimize for Yahoo only we will miss out Google and like wise if we optimize for MSN only our website will fail to find the right top spot in Yahoo and Google. We have to be genius and create a harmony, develop a balance and build in the SEO features acceptable to the algorithm of the three most important search engines.

In Yahoo SEO things might seem similar to Google SEO, but careful handling and prudent ethical steps need to be taken. These are

• Meta Title Tag Building – These are as important to Yahoo and these are important to Google. Placing the relevant keywords ethically help in Yahoo optimization. The length of meta title tag for Yahoo must be equal to 80 characters.
• Meta Description Tag – This carries the same important too. Unique words must be used to describe the contents of the web page. Hence, here too, the use of relevant keywords is encouraged but stuffing is not like by Yahoo as well. Be ware and use your SEO skills ethically. Do not extend the length of Meta Description Tag over 200 characters.
• Mete Keyword Tag – This tag still is important for Yahoo. Keyword consistency is important here. Use the same keywords as being used by you in building Title Tag and the Description Tag and also use the keywords being used by you in the website content. Make sure that you separate keywords by commas and do not use more than 12 keywords in the Meta Keyword Tag. Avoid repetition of keywords in this Meta Tag. 

SEO – The best approach towards visibility

Visibility is the only reason why we get involved in the search engine marketing. Our website needs to have presence, a prominent presence on the web, where people surfing the internet can find us, talk to us and get involved with our business activities. Every business needs customers to survive and SEO gives us the opportunity to reach out to our target market through appearance on the search engine search results and hence lead them to our web pages. 

Know your keywords well – We are talking about the back bone of search engine optimization, the keywords. Not all words are keywords save for the words that are related to your market niche and those that are frequently used by your target market to find products, services and information that you are disseminating or selling. 

When the race of SEO began, the keywords, phrases and their variation stuffed into our web content worked well, but than it make the text less understandable to the human eyes, hence, the stage where keywords were stuffed passed away really fast, giving way to more ethical approach of using the selected keywords and phrases, directly or in variation but in decent keyword density so as to develop the content that made sense when read online.

Build effective META Tags – Once we have done our homework with the keywords, building HTML tags is our next work. The Meta Title tag, this tag is as good as it was since the beginning. But now do not stuff it with keywords, make a powerful Meta Title Tag, off course keyword rich but the one that makes sense to the search engines as well.

Meta Description Tag – This is the tag that carries the summery of the web pages content. It has to be made with serious efforts. Actually this is read by the web viewers and forces them to click or not to click.

Link Building – Building links is a serious game. It gives our web pages strong hold on the web and on the search engines. We know for a fact that naturally gathered links help in better search engine placements.

Search engine optimization is the only best approach to online visibility. We must learn how to play our cards right.