When I look over a web site from a professional standpoint, I'm primarily concerned about three things — the user experience, the aesthetic design, and how well the site is optimized for search engines.
Of the three, I'm regularly surprised at how little attention is paid to SEO, especially the basics.
Everyone knows that the tag is the most important element on a web page for SEO, right?
But what of the meta description, which provides the text summary for each result (the snippet)? It's far more important than many web designers seem to think.
Certainly, the tag, as it forms the clickable link for a search engine result, is key to get right.
However, the snippet provides an opportunity to deliver a targeted call-to-action to the searcher that supports and builds on the text of the main link. It can also differentiate your result from those around it.
Not writing a good meta description — one that at least summarizes the content on the page — means that you're giving up free traffic from organic search engine rankings.
What's all the more surprising to me is that many notable web design-related sites ignore or incorrectly implement the meta description.
For example, the latest A List ...
