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Are meta descriptions bad for long tail traffic

by goodfella22
9 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I know meta descriptions are good if you want to rank for the targeted keyword but will you miss out on the long tail keywords since google won't generate a meta description based on the searchers keywords and instead show the default description?
#bad #descriptions #long #meta #tail #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Don't include a meta description tag, like Wikipedia & Google will automatically display the relevant longtail text from the page inside the SERP description.
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    • Profile picture of the author BenJackson
      I usually optimize my meta description for click-through rates, and I include the page's main keyword near the beginning for the bold emphasis to draw eyes.

      @Yukon are you saying that by not defining a meta description Google will be more apt to take a longtail keyword from your content and use that in the description? In other words, defining a meta description could be limiting?

      I found in the past that alt tags from my images will show up, along with the text surrounding the image, in the meta description when they match the keyword search (even when I defined a meta description). I'm not completely sure if they increased the rankings for said searches.
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by BenJackson View Post

        I usually optimize my meta description for click-through rates, and I include the page's main keyword near the beginning for the bold emphasis to draw eyes.

        @Yukon are you saying that by not defining a meta description Google will be more apt to take a longtail keyword from your content and use that in the description? In other words, defining a meta description could be limiting?

        I found in the past that alt tags from my images will show up, along with the text surrounding the image, in the meta description when they match the keyword search (even when I defined a meta description). I'm not completely sure if they increased the rankings for said searches.
        Without a meta description tag in your pages HTML Google will usually place the relevant text they've found on your web page in the SERP description & also bold part of that relevant text snippet which can help increase CTR on the SERPs.

        Google can still pull relevant text from your web page & override a meta description tag, without a meta description tag you'll most likely see that Google will display the relevant text for the search query.

        Not having a meta description tag can also help you zero in on the exact text Google is focused on per page, so you can go back later on & tweak that text Google is displaying as the SERP description (If needed).
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  • Profile picture of the author Hansons
    Google takes meta description from your content, whether you include or not, if you are using meta description then try to use the best, otherwise leave it.
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  • Profile picture of the author shailender
    Well, Defining your meta description doesn't mean that it would be shown by Google on SERP. It's kind of request to Google to show our "Meta Description", however Google is not compiled to accept our request and may show any line from whole page.
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  • Profile picture of the author racksjackson
    if you have not updated your meta description, in that case google fetch description from your content to show in SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    Try to make it look professional for both visitors and SE. According to me, it's important to use it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Daones
    It depends on what your meta description is and if google deem it to be relevant to the content, if its not they will use part of your actual content. I usually manually put my meta descriptions.
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  • Profile picture of the author lonfore
    Banned
    Yukon provided the best answer. Yes no need to write meta description while google itself can generate best description for your site. I would only use meta description as google is not the only SE.
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