I knew new bloggers out there, just like me who first ignored the META tags and descriptions of their blogs. Many of them ask, does it matter? The answer is yes, it does matter, a lot, especially in SEO.Generally speaking, they are called meta elements. So what are meta elements? Meta elements provide a description for a given site, although these information cannot be seen directly by the site visitors. These meta elements determine your site or your blog's searchability.
Why would I like search engines to find my site? Simple. You probably want a site so that you'll have it found right? Think of search engines as an easy
way to gain visitors.
If you have a site, and you want it to become popular, what you do is refer it to other potential users, usually, first with friends, then with friends of friends and so on. What meta elements do is provide search engines with descriptions to what your site is.
For example, if your site is a car reviews site, what you add into your site's meta description would be "car review, know your car, buy car" or something alike. When a user enters a search in the net and types in "car review for buying", there's a pretty slim chance that your site will appear on the first page. Why? Because first, your site might be new and search engines have not included your site yet in their sites list. Second, you might have put in the wrong description for your site. Third, even though your site is old, you might not have enough visitors or update your site rarely that search engines think that your site is dead or ignored.
So, why would a user search for "car review for buying"? Why doesn't just the user type my site directly and go to it? Answer: The user doesn't know that your site exists at all. That's why he heads to search engines to look for that site that will help him in reviewing cars that eh might buy.
If you noticed, what search engines usually post in the first page of their search results are:
1. Most Relevant
Ofcourse, you won't be able to find chickenwings.com when your search words are "science project suggestions".
2. Latest
Search engines are fond of sites that are up to date. Meaning that the last post was not posted 5 years ago. Search engine spiders crawl for the latest and most relevant resource.
3. Most Viewed
If the one only visiting your site is your self, this surely will not help in your site's search engine health. Explanation behind this is that Google or Yahoo wouldn't suggest site or links that are not viewed at all or have very little audience.
The stuff that were mentioned above are one of the top reasons that a search engine looks for. There are other stuff that search engines use as a criteria so that your site will pop in their results page. So, what's important is that you set your right meta elements. This will free you the hassle of looking for readers manually.
Again, hopefully, that was of some use. Any question, suggestion, comment or contradiction is much welcomed.
