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5. Use Meta Descriptions

The meta description is one of those tags that don't appear on the actual page's content but are seen in another form. The meta description of a page appears as a "snippet" with the page's title tag when a search engine displays its results. The main item to keep in mind about a page's meta description tag is that it does not have any value to the search engines as they look for relevancy.

"So wait a minute here," you're saying. "This is important even though the search engines don't think it is?" That's exactly what I'm saying. Just like the title tag, the meta description is part of the searcher's first impression. Searchers do read the snippets under the title tag. If you give them a reason to click, they're going to click. You give them a reason to click by customizing your meta descriptions to work in conjunction with your title tags.

If you don't define meta descriptions for your web site, the search engines will actually pull content from your page that is relevant to the searcher's query, to display in the results. So basically, when you omit a meta description tag for each page, you're leaving it up to the search engines to decide how to describe your web site in their results.

Here's an example of a customized meta description for the Oasis Camels example:

<meta name="description" content="Looking for a unique 
and fun way to make your child’s birthday a memorable one? Why not book a 
camel ride with Oasis Camel for their birthday party! Every child will remember the 
fun they had with riding our camels all around the back yard.">

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