Titles and Descriptions - Useless or Valuable?

Jel · 2005-07-22, 03:38 PM

It's now a gang bang, I always (99%) use 'em.

Halfdeck · 2005-07-22, 04:21 PM

The only case when a description meta may hurt is if you use identical ones under one domain. Google may list those pages as "similar pages."

As already mentioned, the TITLE/description metas are not only SEO tools...they should be human friendly (i.e. avoid too much capitalization and boring descriptions).

Also, some big sites do some of their branding with their title/description, so even if surfers read past your SE listings, they'll see your site name over and over again (one good example I can think of is Freeones, which comes up alot for babes' names).

I personally don't put too much weight on descriptions. If I think there's sufficient on-page text with decent keyword density for a targetted key phrase, I might decide not to bother with meta tags at all. If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I just cut a part of the page text and insert that into my description.

Useless · 2005-07-22, 04:44 PM

Since some pervert (Simon

) was subconsciously thinkng about me when he wrote the thread's title, which set off my boardtracker btw, I've decided to answer. I'm a big believer in using every tag and attribute available to you. Some of the most basic things like that can be the most important SEO steps taken by the average builder.

2005-07-22, 04:21 PM	#2
Halfdeck You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New Haven, CT Posts: 985	The only case when a description meta may hurt is if you use identical ones under one domain. Google may list those pages as "similar pages." As already mentioned, the TITLE/description metas are not only SEO tools...they should be human friendly (i.e. avoid too much capitalization and boring descriptions). Also, some big sites do some of their branding with their title/description, so even if surfers read past your SE listings, they'll see your site name over and over again (one good example I can think of is Freeones, which comes up alot for babes' names). I personally don't put too much weight on descriptions. If I think there's sufficient on-page text with decent keyword density for a targetted key phrase, I might decide not to bother with meta tags at all. If I'm in a hurry, sometimes I just cut a part of the page text and insert that into my description. __________________ Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

2005-07-22, 04:44 PM	#3
Useless Certified Nice Person Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Dirty Undies, NY Posts: 11,268	Since some pervert (Simon ) was subconsciously thinkng about me when he wrote the thread's title, which set off my boardtracker btw, I've decided to answer. I'm a big believer in using every tag and attribute available to you. Some of the most basic things like that can be the most important SEO steps taken by the average builder. __________________ Click here to purchase a bridge I'm selling.

2005-07-22, 03:38 PM	#1
Jel I'm the only guy in the world who has to wake up to have a nightmare Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: London, United Kingdom Posts: 1,895	It's now a gang bang, I always (99%) use 'em.