SEO and Meta Descriptions
Meta Tags are an HTML element that you can place on the pages of your site to give search engines more information about each page. The content of the meta tag does not display on the page of your website to visitors. Meta tags are located in the head area of a page’s underlying HTML code and are available to search engines. The most important of these meta tags is the meta description.
The page’s meta description tag lets you describe the page to the search engine. The content of the description is frequently used by search results pages to summarize the content of the page. Because this is the description presented to anyone viewing the search results, the description should include your keywords and provide enough information to encourage the searcher to click the link to visit your page. You should normally try to keep the meta description to 155 characters. As with any marketing material, the description should also include a call to action that encourages the reader to do something, in this case, visit your site.
The html construction of meta tags is a name/value pair. Here is an example of a meta description for a website that sells shoes:
<meta name="description" content="Do your feet a favor! Shop the best deals on men's dress shoes, loafers, sneakers, boots, and more at YourSite.com!">
The resulting search results page lists this entry as follows:
In this search results page example, the first line of the result comes from the Home Page Title, and the description is the meta description. Note that the search keywords are displayed in bold.
Placing Meta Tags on the Pages of Your Site
The procedures you use for placing the meta tags on your site can vary, depending on the type of page. See the following topics for information about adding the meta description to each page.
If your Meta Description information does not display, clear your browser cache.
Homepage Meta Description
The meta description on your homepage is the invitation on the search results page for a visitor to go to your site's homepage. This description should be as succinct and descriptive as possible, while at the same time enticing visitors to your site. A good exercise for writing descriptions is to study the descriptions of other sites, including your competitors or businesses in similar industries.
You can set the meta description of your website through Site Management Tools by enhancing the home page . See Enhanced Pages.
If you use Content Delivery, you can set the meta description with a content delivery enhanced page. See Meta Description for the Home Page.
Facet Page Meta Description
You can use Site Management Tools to create the meta description for facet search pages. For example, for a facet filter of men’s shoes, your description may be Shop the best deals on men's dress shoes, loafers, sneakers, boots, and more at YourSite.com.
When using Site Management Tools, you can set the descriptions for a facet page, by enhancing the facet page. See Enhanced Pages.
If you use Content Delivery, you can set the meta description with a Content Delivery enhanced page. See Meta Description for Facet Pages
Item Detail Page Meta Description
By setting the meta description for your items, you can describe each item detail page to search engines. The description may also appear as the summary on search results pages when someone queries the search engine for a specific item. You can set the meta description for each item on the item record.
Because anyone searching for a specific item is searching at a product focused level, your description should include information such as brand, make, model, and so on. The description should also include unique marketing type content to serve as your sales pitch to a shopper to buy your product.
To set the meta description for items:
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Go to Lists > Website > Items.
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Click the edit link for the item.
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On the Web Store subtab, in the Meta Tag HTML field, enter the full HTML code for the meta description. For example:
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Click Save.
Landing Page Meta Description
As with other pages, the meta description tag for a landing page such as an About Us or a Contact Us page describes that page the search engine and is often used as the summary for the page on search results pages. So use best practice when writing the descriptions. Be sure to include keywords that a shopper is likely to use when searching for the type of information contained on the page. Equally as important, the landing page should also include those keywords in the text on the page.
You can set the landing page metadata description in Site Management Tools when you create the Landing Page. See Landing Pages.
If you use Content Delivery, you can set the landing page meta description on the content delivery landing page record. See Using Content Delivery.