Does keyword at the very front of meta description have impact?
-
I know that it is important to have your primary keyword target as the first word or two words of your title tag. But what about your meta description tag? does it matter where they keyword is in the description tag? I see a lot of other sites stuffing their keywords right at the front of the description tag and it looks somewhat unnatural. What's your take? do you put the primary keyword as the first word or two words of your description tag?
-
Thanks!
-
I did a lot of research on this topic for you Storwell. I read articles from Bing, Duanne Forrester, Q&As on Bing Webmaster's area and checked a few other sources as well. There are several non-credible sources that discuss the topic so be careful if you go searching online for the answer. There is even an article on Sphinn which is titled "Bing Says Goodbye to META Description as a Ranking Factor". The article simply has no credibility and serves as an example of what leads to so much confusion in the SEO world.
Bing does not definitively state meta descriptions are not a ranking factor. It would be my best guess that Bing either does use meta descriptions as a ranking factor or it is an extremely low weighted factor.
Indirectly, Bing does weigh CTR as a ranking factor and a meta description does influence CTR so it can have an effect that way. In this sense, I would suggest writing a meta description tag for users. Write the most compelling and accurate description you can which will entice readers to click-through to your site. I would not make any attempt to modify a meta description to improve rankings. Focus CTR.
-
Does this also hold true for bing / yahoo?
-
You can confirm directly from Google here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35624
"While accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won't impact your ranking within search results."
-
Wow! that's news to me! thanks!
-
Agree with pbhatt, a compelling description that convinces searchers to click through can make a ton of difference. Without one, even a high ranking page may not get the traffic you'd expect.
-
The meta description has absolutely no impact on rankings, at least not for Google. When your page's meta description is actually used for a search result, it may impact Click Through Rate but it definitely has no impact on ranking position.
-
When your keywords match the search query they are bolded on the SERPs. That can potentially increase the CTR if it catches the searchers' eyes. If every site in the results is doing the same thing and they all have the bolded keyword in the beginning of the result, you may stand out more if it's in the middle. Just keep it in the first 150 - 160 characters or else it won't make it onto the SERP.
Thinking about what Zsolt said about answering the searcher's questions is more important than the exact placement of the keywords though.
-
You're right that having your primary keyword in the Title tag is import.
However, even Google admits that they no longer take meta keywords into consideration for ranking factors.
There has been shown to have some benefit in putting your primary keyword(s) closer to the beginning of Titles and descriptions - but you still need to make it natural and not stuffed or forced. One reason why you don't want it too far down the sentence is that the descriptions can get truncated and your primary KW can get cut off.
Try to get it in there using the best written sentence for your users.
-
It has some impact bust not very serious, I would say converging to zero. I think writing a good description that answers the serchers's querry and generates clickthroughs is more important than stuffing your kw in the first few words.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Homepage target keyword less volume than subcategory keyword
As an example - let's say that I have an online store that sells home accessories. Within my store, I have categories like "kitchen accessories", "bedroom accessories", and "bathroom accessories" among others. Naturally I would want my homepage to be the broadest keyword that best describes my store's offering (i.e. "Home Accessories"). Then, on my sub-category page, I would target "Kitchen Accessories". In this example - let's assume "Kitchen Accessories" has more search volume than "Home Accessories". Would it be better to focus on that keyword on my homepage instead? Example Current Homepage Title: "Beautiful Home Accessories - Crate + Feather" Alternate Homepage Title: "Bath, Bedroom, and Kitchen Accessories - Crate + Feather" Which one would you do assuming everything is equal aside from search volume?
On-Page Optimization | | clarasboutiqueusa0 -
? Keyword stuffing
I have a new website. Did "on page grading". Although the page received a grade of A the only area that did not receive a check mark was key word stuffing. It recommended I not use keyword more that 15 times but I only counted 11 uses of the key phrase "breast augmentation." However the phrase is also used in alt tag of images which would take me over 15. Are alt tag on images counted and is this a concern? I tried to use "augmentation mammaplasty" to reduce the use of the phrase "breast augmentation" but will use of "augmentation" and "breast" alone also cause the count to increase for the phrase "breast augmentation"
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
Is Article Length A Factor For Keyword Stuffing?
I've noticed that the SEOmoz On Page analysis tool sets a limit of 15 occurrences for a keyword on a page. It seems this is not dependent on the page length? Is that not relevant? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | andersvin0 -
Breadcrumb position SEO impact
Hi all, Our UX designers are working on a new page design, and the breadcrumb position looks somewhat strange - it's almost in the middle of the page. The new page looks like this (the breadcrumb is below the head banner), but it's a showcase page that contains about 150 items. Each of them has a small thumbnail, title, category and short description. They've decided to use the head banner's place and have there all items, grouped in categories that visitors can browse. The breadcrumb menu is at 900 pixels from the top of the page In other words, you have the major part of this page content in front of the breadcrumb menu. Are there any SEO implications in such case? Should we use breadcrumbs on this page if they're not at the top? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | lgrozeva
Maggie0 -
Why do I need to write meta descriptions?
I work at a marketing firm, and was trying to convince my boss that we need to start writing meta descriptions for all pages on the sites we develop for clients. He asked why this would be necessary since Google automatically pulls a snippet of content, containing the keyword(s) that had been searched, from any page listed in its SERPs. I didn't have an answer for this, and it got me wondering: When does Google actually display the meta descriptions that people write instead of scraped content? And is it really that necessary to write meta descriptions?
On-Page Optimization | | matt-145670 -
Existing good authority LP with multiple keywords, how to optimize for these keywords?
Hi Mozzers, Currently I am optimizing ONpage after I made a report for which keywords the website already ranks in the serps. I was surprised about the numbers of keywords the website ranks in Google. The website ranks for multiple keywords in 1 landing page. They get a lot of traffic, but has a position #5 or #7/#8, onpage grade is for most of the keywords a C or D and lots of them a F, so it's worth to optimize it. How should I do that when the landing page is domain.com/category and the 5 different keywords are partofcategoryname. Should I put all these keywords in the title and landing page body content as the onpage tool recommend me that? I was thinking about the option I described above OR to create a new landing page for the specific keyword each. However, the already ranked landing page has a PA of 38. When starting to build new landing pages is starting to build from PA 0. Anyway, it's definitely I chance to do onpage, I just don't know what I should do since there are 5 different keywords that already ranks for the landing page with good traffic. I want to let it rise in the serps to increase the traffic of course. Looking forward to recommendations! thanks in advance
On-Page Optimization | | Falcopa0 -
Keyword Optimization
I optimized this site filmeonlinenoi.com witch is in romanian for this keyphrase "filme online gratis" , i stuck on page 2, i cant get to the first page! I was, but i fall again to the second page...
On-Page Optimization | | Alexsmenaru0 -
Keyword use in meta description
Anyone know if its important that the target keyword is used AT THE START of the meta description, or is it enough that it is anywhere in the description...? I have a few big ones that are at the end of the description and I was wondering if I should move them up to the front... Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja0