Google Webmaster Meta Description
Google Webmaster Tools optimizes websites for the Google search engine, increasing page ranking and site visibility. One key ingredient to improving search engine optimization (SEO) is by using meta tags. The meta description is one of several meta tags used and describes the website in a snippet for computer users.
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Meta Tags
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Meta tags are pieces of text within HTML tags that are added to the website's HTML and aid in SEO. Meta tags are placed in the "<head>" section of HTML and do not appear on the website. There are two components to meta tags. The first component is the name and is written as "<meta name=" where the name is the general topic for the meta tag. The second component is the content and is written as "content=" where the content is the specific keywords related to the website. The full meta tag reads as "<meta name="name" content="keywords">."
Meta Description
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The meta tag for describing the website in an SEO-friendly way is called the meta description. The "name" is "Description" and the "content" is a sentence or two describing the website as it would appear in search results on a search engine like Yahoo! or Google. So, the meta tag looks like this: "<meta name="Description" content="Here is a description of my website">." The description conveys information about the website using plenty of keywords. The meta description can encompass the entire website or be specific to the HTML page in which it is written.
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Google Webmaster Tools
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Google Webmaster is a set of tools that improves website SEO and page ranking specifically for the Google search engine. There are three sets of guidelines that help Google find, index and rank the website -- design and content guidelines, technical guidelines and quality guidelines. The meta tags and meta description are part of the design and content guidelines. Meta tags contribute toward making the website a Google-friendly site.
Writing the Description
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The meta description is an important aspect of meta tagging and Google Webmaster offers tips to writing it. Use different descriptions for different Web pages within the website. If it is not feasible to write a separate description for each page, write them for the most-trafficked pages. The description should contain facts and references if the page features an article, book or products. Avoid using long strings of keywords, since this doesn't give computer users an accurate description of the Web page and website.
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References
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