{"id":1242,"date":"2010-03-08T10:47:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T10:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agconsult.com\/en\/description-tag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-important\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T17:06:47","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:06:47","slug":"description-tag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agconsult.com\/en\/usability-blog\/description-tag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Description tag: what is it and why is it so important?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-is-a-description-tag\">What is a description tag ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The description tag is a piece of html code that&#8217;s meant to give a short &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; 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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-not-visible-on-your-web-page\">Not visible on your web page<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The description tag of a web page is not visible on the page itself. That&#8217;s why a lot of companies don&#8217;t pay it much attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-google-shows-the-description-tag\">Google shows the description tag<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google likes the description tag. If a web page has a description tag, Google shows it, provided these 2 conditions are met:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Semantic similarity between the description tag and the content of the web page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Significant similarity between the user&#8217;s search query and the content of the description tag<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-example-1\"><strong>Example 1<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image small\"><a href=\"\/sites\/default\/files\/blog\/2010\/03\/description-1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/sites\/default\/files\/blog\/2010\/03\/description-1.gif\" alt=\"Google shows the description tag if it contains the user's query\" class=\"wp-image-2265\" title=\"Google shows the description tag if it contains the user's query\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I looked for \u2018title tag\u2019. Google shows the page&#8217;s description tag because it contains my query &#8216;title tag&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-example-2\"><strong>Example 2<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image small\"><a href=\"\/sites\/default\/files\/blog\/2010\/03\/description-2.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/sites\/default\/files\/blog\/2010\/03\/description-2.gif\" alt=\"If the description tag doesn't contain the user's query, Google shows sentences on the page that do\" class=\"wp-image-2266\" title=\"If the description tag doesn't contain the user's query, Google shows sentences on the page that do\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I looked for \u2018page title&#8217;. Because the description tag does not contain my query, Google doesn&#8217;t show it. Instead, Google shows a sentence fragment on the page that does contain the query.<!--break--><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-does-google-do-if-you-don-t-have-a-description-tag\">What does Google do if you don&#8217;t have a description tag?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If a page doesn&#8217;t have a description tag, Google usually shows sentence fragments on the page that contain the user&#8217;s query.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-does-the-description-tag-affect-my-ranking-in-google\">Does the description tag affect my ranking in Google?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No, it doesn&#8217;t. Google ignores the description tag&#8217;s content when it comes to ranking. The description tag will not help you to score better in Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-does-the-description-tag-matter-if-google-doesn-t-use-it-for-its-ranking\">Does the description tag matter, if Google doesn&#8217;t use it for its ranking?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yes, it absolutely does. Which result people click on in Google is affected by the result&#8217;s title and the extra bit of information that appears underneath the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agconsult.com\/en\/usability-blog\/8-tips-for-the-perfect-title-tag\/\">8 tips for the perfect title tag<\/a> you should have the title pretty much covered. The \u2018extra bit of information\u2019 that Google shows about a page can be the description tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Good copywriting can convince people to click on your page rather than your competitor&#8217;s, even though he is maybe ranked one or two spots higher than you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-do-you-write-a-good-description-tag\">How do you write a good description tag?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Good question. You can find out by reading these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agconsult.com\/en\/usability-blog\/12-tips-for-the-perfect-description-tag\/\">12 tips for the perfect description tag<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The description tag is a hidden piece of html code that can make the difference between some visitors via Google and loads of visitors via Google.<br \/>\n<span class=\"note-blauw\">What is a description tag and why should you care?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,102],"tags":[57,81,82],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-search-engine-optimisation","category-writing-for-the-web","tag-copywriting","tag-description-tag","tag-seo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Description tag: what is it and why is it so important? | AGConsult<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agconsult.com\/en\/usability-blog\/description-tag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-so-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Description tag: what is it and why is it so important?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The description tag is a hidden piece of html code that can make the difference between some visitors via Google and loads of visitors via Google. 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