Are Meta Descriptions Really Necessary?
-
We use them for some of our key landing pages, but for the majority of our pages (product pages, really) we let Google decide what to use for the meta description. These pages get a lot of medium to long-tail traffic and I feel like Google is going to do a better job of inserting bolded, keyword rich text from the page content and generating a better CTR than if I were to plug something in there myself.
Would I be better off optimizing the the description for more of a direct match keyword instead of doing what I'm doing now (using Google generated descriptions to optimize for medium to long-tail keywords)?
-
Not to be a smart ass or anything, but it sounds like you answered your own question JP.
There is no right or wrong answer to "are meta descriptions really necessary". Often times it is best to let Google self-generate the meta description so it matches the intent of the user query. Especially when, as it sounds like in your case, you're talking about an ecommerce site with maybe (?) a lot of product pages and long-tail keyword queries your pages could be eligible to rank for. In my mind, the real question is whether you'd be better off spending your time creating great content, or trying to craft unique meta description tags for product pages that are already "generating a better CTR than if I were to plug something in there myself."
It's a judgment call.
-
Hey JP,
I agree with the above comment, as meta descriptions make are part of your websites realestate on Google's search results. However based on Moz's SEO guide, you are correct in saying that you don't always need to write the meta description. Read here for more information - http://moz.com/learn/seo/meta-description
-
Meta descriptions are NOT a must, however they have been correlated with higher CTR. Here's a way to check if you should add meta descriptions.
Do the search site:(insert your site).com or site:www.(insert your site).com, if the metas that are being shown make your happy then Google is delivering a good description.
Many times what Google comes up with is crap. Also meta descriptions are great for you marketing message.
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
-
Does Exact Match Domain really works?
Hey!
Keyword Research | | ayofztk
I heard that exact match domain is helpful in ranking over popular keywords. I have two websites Tech Crunch SmallSEOTools My question is, will it be helpful to rank over Tech Crunch and SmallSEOTools, respectively?0 -
Should the Product Name/Keyword be first in meta description?
I'm writing my meta descriptions for my products. Right now I have it as <product name="">at <company name="">and a brief description.</company></product> However, I was wondering if I put a word in front of the <product name="">such as "Wholesale". So for example</product> Wholesale <product name="">at <company name="">.......</company></product> Is that advisable? Or should the product name always be the first word?
Keyword Research | | IcarusSEO0 -
Exact match keyword phrases, are they still really important to search engines?
This has been bugging me for a while now and I'd like to know what you guys think. I often find what I can only described as 'oddities' in our rankings for certain search terms. For example, we might rank top 5 for 'A5 week view diary' and then second page for 'Week view diaries A5'. (Not an actual example, I just find stuff like this all the time across our various pages) They are basically the same query, so I don't understand why so often there is such a discrepancy. I can only put this down to exact match keyword phrase still being an important ranking factor. What do you guys think? Are exact match phrases still an important part of the SERP results? Thank you. Isaac.
Keyword Research | | isaac6630 -
Is content really king?
I have a good sized website with lots of pages. Many pages are designed around specific keywords and for the most part, they rank well. I have many pages packed with good content that don't rank well, but the keywords are related to those pages that score well. Are the under performing pages contributing to the good performing pages and/or to the overall benefit of the website because of the additional content? In short, if i remove under performing pages, will it affect good performing pages and the overall performance of the website?
Keyword Research | | KrisIrr0 -
Image Description & Image Title
Our site allows us to update via WYSIWYG editor. When adding photos to our pages it gives us the option to add (Image Description) & (Image Title). When optimizing a single page how should we properly be filling these in? Should Image title be keyword we are trying to rank for? If so, should we be following proper keyword density ratio to avoid keyword stuffing? Thank you
Keyword Research | | TP_Marketing0 -
Is there a Meta tag or Keyword Generator tool that I can use on SEMOZ ?
I need to identify a tool within SEMOZ that can automatically generate Keywords and Meta tags.
Keyword Research | | sherohass0 -
Is there really "keyword strategy" for sites with User Generated content? Any experiences?
I am starting website focused on consumer complaints/reviews with purely User Generated content. Is there really "keyword strategy" for such sites? I can only think of analyzing competition's keywords and understanding long tail http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-big-is-your-long-tail-whiteboard-friday. Any experiences? Or ideas?
Keyword Research | | ShoutOut0 -
Using meta keywords for Comparison Shopping Sites - Buy.com, TheFind.com, Shopzilla
We are thinking about using our meta keywords field to feed to shopping networks like The Find, Shopzilla, Buy.com, etc. These networks want you to provide them with as many keywords as possible to show up in their internal search results. If we feed them our meta keywords field we could have 20 to 25 keywords for each product (tennis equipment). Would this be a bad or good thing for SEO?
Keyword Research | | tennisexpress0