Meta tag description Usage

[innofidelity]

Do i wanna put meta tags as separate description that is not in the particular web page ,Normally i put meta description as 155 character from first paragraph of the web page .so do i need put a unique meta description ?

[Matt-Williamson]

I think by not writing unique meta descriptions you are missing an opportunity to help your pages convert better in the SERPs. A good well written meta description can improve your sites click-through rate in the search engines. I have tested out different ones in the past and if you get it right you will see a noticeable improvement in my experience.

Have a quick look at the SeoMoz best practice guide for some more general info -

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

[RobertFisher]

Chandana,

IMO for most sites the meat description is one of the most critical elements in On-page optimization (notice I did not say on-site). When we query a search engine for a product, service, or information and a SERP is returned, for organic search we look at the title and meta description to determine which is either the first to appear to have an answer or the most likely answer to our query.

While many CMS plug-ins have an option for a "site-wide" meta description, that is not the best option on sites with more than a couple of pages. You want a meta description that states: "Here is the best answer to what you searched for: Get it now! Get it Cheap!" (obviously, in a way that reflects your page.) Without showing you have the answer to the query you are going to get less click throughs and therefore traffic to your site.

Even if CTR is not a part of the algorithm, you will not have a chance to sell, etc those who are never getting to your site.

Now, in using the first 155 words you are likely losing an opportunity to sell the overall of the page while making it a bit easier on filling out all that is needed for a page in search. The first few sentences in a paragraph generally are broad and not necessarily speaking to the "answer is here, answer is now, answer is cheapest!" So, we do a lot of web pages and, typically, if I have a complaint with a site on final review, most will be around meta descriptions that fail to show this is where the answer is to the searcher's query.

Hope this provides a bit of assistance,

Robert

[conversiontactics]

Hi,

What is your CTR, you can check impression from webmaster tools and calculate the Click  per impression. You can start by focusing on your landing pages.

Create description that best define your  page and search term.

[Macaper]

I think most is covered in the above answers, but will add my thoughts on this element.

Yes, you should have "unique" and good content in your meta-descriptions, as well as in any content element. There is no short cuts for good SEO. Meta-description is not a ranking element by it self, but its a big factor for SERP CTR and driving business.

With that said, I don't think there is no need not to be as smart as possible and here is when CMS with auto-generation rules comes into play.

I recommend any site to use preamble as a content element as it will be a short descriptive keyword rich text that is selling and should get the user to quickly understand the content on the page and get them to move down the page or into a conversion funnel. For me this is exactly the same as the function of a meta-description.

We allways set up our clients CMS's to autogenerate meta-description from the preamble text, as this saves times. But, we also creates an override rule with a field for meta-description that we code that if meta-description contains content, then it overrides the preamble (as a meta-description).

That way you get the best of both worlds. The possibility to write good "on-page" SEO as well as saving time.