If something catches the reader's eye as they scroll down a list of site descriptions, they will hopefully visit the site. It is difficult to discuss, value, time and the problem that the Web site solves in just two or three words. People often scan headlines in magazines and brochures, even when they don't read all the information.
People don't read individual letters after the time they time 12 years old; they recognize words. Educators know that people glance at words and recognize the words by the shapes defined by the tops of the letters. If you don't believe it, take a sentence in any newspaper or book and cover the bottom half of the words. You can still read the words with relative ease. Now cover the top of a different sentence. You will find that the words are harder to read because there in not much difference in the shape or line of the bottom of the words. Interesting, but how does this apply here?
Here's how: Since people recognize words because the tops of words vary in height and appearance, then sentences that start with just one capital letter and then use lowercase letters are easier to recognize and get read faster. Words in all caps are hard to read.
To help your Web site get noticed, create clear summary statements for your key Web pages, which include the home page and top-level pages at your Web site. The description should be 25 or less compelling words describing your Website. Think of it as a very short billboard ad. For this reason, there is no need to try to jam of of your targeted keywords into a sentence when constructing the description.
As you write your page description, ask yourself these questions before submitting to the search engines:
Is it interesting
Is it compelling
Would I read it and want to visit the site
Does it solve a problem
Does it suggest that it solves a problem quickly
Will it make someone curious to learn more
Be careful! You don't want to offend anyone's intelligence; many direct response Internet marketers write descriptions that underestimate readers. Read it yourself and make a determination if you would find the description interesting. If you don't you can be sure that others won't either.
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