If you produce your own web pages, you’ve probably read time and time again that meta tags in the header are not used by search engines any more, especially Google.
This is not true!
For example, take a look at the Google search engine results for “Keyword Transformer”. My website Keyword Transformer is ranked at position nine at the time of writing.
Google’s description of the content of my web page is as follows:
“Find out how professional Internet marketers save time and money by building their keyword lists automatically, and how you can do the same.”
It’s quite a nice description, I’m sure you’ll agree, especially when compared to the generic descriptions that Google usually comes up with for web pages.
Where does this description appear on my web page? You’ve guessed it. It’s in the meta description header!
The title, “Keyword Transformer by David Thomas,” is the title of the home page.
Now, if you’re creative, you will want to set up your description to attract clicks just as you would for a Google AdWords campaign, except that in this case you’ve got more room to play with; probably up to about 25 words or so. Also, you should bear in mind that the description you put in your meta tag may not be used by search engines, especially if your page appears as a result for a phrase that you did not target. Does it matter? No! After all, this is a listing that you haven’t paid for. What you are doing is just providing a guide to the search engines as to the possible description that they can use for your web page.
David Thomas, The Affiliate Marketer
