Description tag: what is it and why is it so important?

What is a description tag ?

The description tag is a piece of html code that’s meant to give a short – you guessed it – description of a web page. The description tag is at the top of the page in thesection of the code. In code, a description tag looks like this:

Not visible on your web page

The description tag of a web page is not visible on the page itself. That’s why a lot of companies don’t pay it much attention.

Google shows the description tag

Google likes the description tag. If a web page has a description tag, Google shows it, provided these 2 conditions are met:

  • Semantic similarity between the description tag and the content of the web page
  • Significant similarity between the user’s search query and the content of the description tag

Example 1

Google shows the description tag if it contains the user's query

I looked for ‘title tag’. Google shows the page’s description tag because it contains my query ‘title tag’.

Example 2

If the description tag doesn't contain the user's query, Google shows sentences on the page that do

I looked for ‘page title’. Because the description tag does not contain my query, Google doesn’t show it. Instead, Google shows a sentence fragment on the page that does contain the query.

What does Google do if you don’t have a description tag?

If a page doesn’t have a description tag, Google usually shows sentence fragments on the page that contain the user’s query.

Does the description tag affect my ranking in Google?

No, it doesn’t. Google ignores the description tag’s content when it comes to ranking. The description tag will not help you to score better in Google.

Does the description tag matter, if Google doesn’t use it for its ranking?

Yes, it absolutely does. Which result people click on in Google is affected by the result’s title and the extra bit of information that appears underneath the title.

Thanks to our 8 tips for the perfect title tag you should have the title pretty much covered. The ‘extra bit of information’ that Google shows about a page can be the description tag.

Good copywriting can convince people to click on your page rather than your competitor’s, even though he is maybe ranked one or two spots higher than you are.

How do you write a good description tag?

Good question. You can find out by reading these 12 tips for the perfect description tag.

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