What is a Meta Description Tag?
Publication date : 21 April 2021 • Updated 6 December 2021.
A Meta Description is an HTML tag intended for search engines that describes the content of a web page. The content of this tag does not appear on the site but in SERP under the title of the page.
If the Meta Description is not filled in, search engines will generate one from the content of the landing page. Thus, the customization of Meta Description Tags, allows a better control of the snippets of the pages and the overall communication of the website.
How to optimize a Meta Description Tag?
The Meta Description does not directly influence the positioning of the page in SERP of search engines. On the other hand, by inciting Internet users to click, it represents a powerful lever of traffic towards the sites.
Like the Title Tag, the optimization of a Meta Description consists in finding the balance between the immediate understanding of the content of the web page by Internet users and the placement of keywords for search engines.
Tips and recommendations:
- A Meta Description Tag should be about 150 characters long (including spaces);
- Special characters can be misinterpreted by search engines;
- The use of action verbs can greatly improve the click rate;
- The keywords must correspond to the title of the page and the targeted query, but also be consistent with the content of the landing page;
- The content of a Meta Description Tag must be clear and understandable by the user, an over-optimization of keywords can be penalized;
- A Meta Description Tag must be unique and different from the title of the page.
