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Re: Page Description - Has Anyone Tested ...

by AlphaWarrior
2 replies
  • SEO
    • |
For page descriptions, I have seen two theories:
1. Do not use a page description so that G will pick out the relevant text from the page and since it is relevant, you will get more clicks.
2. Write and use a page description that encourages/motivates viewers to click on your serp response so that you get more clicks.

Has anyone tested both ideas to see which is best?

Thanks!
#description #page #tested
  • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
    Originally Posted by AlphaWarrior View Post

    For page descriptions, I have seen two theories:
    1. Do not use a page description so that G will pick out the relevant text from the page and since it is relevant, you will get more clicks.
    2. Write and use a page description that encourages/motivates viewers to click on your serp response so that you get more clicks.

    Has anyone tested both ideas to see which is best?

    Thanks!
    If you want solidify the keywords you're after then the descriptions can work well and get better clickthroughts (tested).

    However if you're writing a lot of content and want to rank for more varied keywords, then leaving the description out can be a good idea because Google will pick the relevant snippets.

    Even with the description Google does pick out relevant snippets but I found it to be less often than without description.

    For example, I had a site with descriptions and after removing them, traffic increased.

    PLUS: For your own study, pick out a few kewyords and put them into Google. Check the first 30 results to see if they have descriptions.. then base your judgement on that data?

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Yes tested this extensively.

    I don't by default add meta descriptions.

    If a page is ranking high for a high traffic SERP and the automated description is awful I'll create a meta description tag.

    As Intrepreneur touched on, if a webpage has a lot of different SERPs, you might not want a manually added meta description that's only optimized (optimized as an ad) for one phrase.

    Really depends on the webpage and it's SERPs. The meta description has no Google ranking value, so it's an ad to increase click through rate, not increase rankings. Add the wrong description and the CTR could go down, sometimes automated is better.

    David
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