Uniqueness Counts

Just like with the title tag you should have a unique description on every page that tells the users what they will find when they visit. First impressions counts and this is your chance to make a good first impression. You should also try to avoid just copying the first paragraph of your content unless you rewrite it for the description.

Use Your Keywords

You should use your main keyword phrase in the description. This has two benefits. Google will highlight the keywords in the description that the user searched for. The highlighting of the keywords draws the user’s attention to your listing and encourages them to click. Remember, getting good search engine rankings does no good unless the users actually click on your listings. The presence of your targeted keywords in the description also may help a little with the actual ranking on some of the search engines.

Keep it Brief

Don’t try to put the whole content of your page in the description. Typically you should keep the description to 160 characters or less. Some of the search engines may balk at a description that is too long. Additionally, you don’t want to give away all the information you have in store for the user before they get to the page. If you do that they have no reason to visit your page.

You can find more search marketing tips to help you maximize your search marketing results.