How to Get Compelling Descriptions into Your Search Results Todd Follansbee WebMarketingResources.net - Feb 10, 2009

Getting organic search traffic to your site involves two things: (1) high rankings and (2) a compelling search result that causes a click-through. The search result on Google is made up of three primary elements:

1. Title
2. Description (sometimes called a snippet or abstract)
3. URL

Of these, the Title (which comes from the <TITLE> tag on your webpage) is the most important, since it appears first in the search result and attracts the eye because it both boldfaced and hyperlinked. From a rankings standpoint it is important, too, since keywords in the Title are a powerful component of Google's ranking algorithm. So make your titles both compelling and keyword rich.

However, in this article we're focusing on the Description section of the search results. Your Google descriptions or snippets may have no effect on ranking, according to Google. But from the user's perspective, they are nearly as important as your listing's ranking, since they help the user determine relevancy by setting expectations. They can be especially visible because Google may boldface the searcher's keyword in the snippet. Unless you are managing your snippets, you are losing both relevant traffic and the conversions that will result.

How Google Creates Snippets

You can't always control the content of Google's snippets. Google creates snippets automatically from:

• Description META Tag. If this exists on your webpage, Google is likely to use it, though it may extract relevant phrases from your full description.
• Abstract of your webpage. Sometimes Google extracts phrases, relevant to the searcher's keyword, from the body text of your webpage, especially the first paragraph or two.
• Open Directory Project listings. If your website is listed  in ODP, it is sometimes used as a source for search results snippets. If you don't want search engines to use the DMOZ listing, use the following tag on your home page: <meta name="robots" content="NOODP">. (NOODP stands for "No Open Directory Project".)

Guidelines for Writing Effective Description META Tags

Even though you can't control the snippet that Google will use, if you write a careful description for each webpage, your chances of Google using your wording goes way up. To modify your description tags, you'll need to know a little HTML code (though not much) or have your webmaster make the changes for you. It's also possible that a Content Management System (CMS) can help you change description META tags from a browser interface.

Here are guidelines for writing a description META tag:

1. Unique. Don't use the same description for all pages. Describe specific page content in a compelling and accurate way.
2. Home page. Describe your website as a whole on the home page or sectional pages. Describe specific page content on individual pages. If you have many pages, start by making sure that the most important pages have good descriptions.
3. Sentences. You don't need to write full sentences. Phrases are okay.
4. Product pages can focus on key information, but try to use your description META tag to identify price, size, author, source, etc. -- whatever describes the product best.
5. Avoid Hype. Carefully describe the content without "marketese" in a way that sets fair expectations about what viewers will see if they click.
6. Straightforward. Don't try to mislead, be cute, or disparage others.
7. Benefits. Focus your description on something of benefit, something which serves the customer.
8. Length. Limit your description META tag to about 20 to 25 words or 155 characters (including spaces) -- the most that Google currently seems to display.

How to Test for Compelling Descriptions

Testing is the best way to develop compelling descriptions.

1. Brainstorm with those who understand your business. Build a list of several descriptions for the home page. Do they describe your business? From a particular description wording, what would you expect to find on the site? Is it a fair and accurate representation of your site?
2. Prepare Search Page Mock-Ups. Using a graphics program, from screen shots of actual search results pages (using a keyword or phrase relevant to your site) prepare a few snippets in these homemade search pages. (It sounds complicated, but it's not.)
3. Do User Testing by asking several people who are unfamiliar with your business or site to "search" on the phrase(s) you've chosen. Then, instead of using Google, display your mocked up page. Ask your testers to click on the result which looks the most compelling (though it won't go anywhere).
4. Probe for insights. Ask them: What do you think about the results you see? What does each one mean? What would you expect to find? What would you hope to find? Finally, take testers to your page and ask them for the best description they can think of. Also ask how well their expectations are met.

After testing 4 to 6 people in an afternoon, you'll be surprised at how many great insights you'll gather. You may even decide to run a more complete test of your entire site.

With a great search results description or snippet -- one which describes your pages accurately and sets reasonable expectations -- you can be sure your conversions will increase, possibly dramatically.

Todd Follansbee is founder of WebMarketingResources.net. He is a usability and persuasion consultant who has been testing user behaviors on web sites for over 10 years. His methodology for improving conversions recently won a top ten award in Entrepreneur Magazine. For a limited time, Todd is offering a special small business one hour site review and consult for only $125. Improve your user experience and your bottom line. For more details visit here. http://www.webmarketingresources.net/reviewoffer.html