Help:Description



The description is the snippet of text that appears in search engine results for the main page of a FANDOM wiki. Once critical to Search Engine Optimization, descriptions have declined in importance due to unsavory tactics like keyword stuffing. The keywords and phrases used in the description are no longer factored into search algorithms, but informative descriptions can drive click through rate.

The meta description is a statement in the head of an HTML document used to set the "advertising copy" for a page in search. On FANDOM, MediaWiki markup sets the HTML source code for the page, so the contents of MediaWiki:Description appears in the main page source code inside of the tag. Communities share a default description that begins: " is a database that anyone can edit." In the absence of a meta description tag, search engines will create a snippet from other elements on the page.

Note that it can take days (or even months) for changes to the Description to show in search engines. Commercial search engines use algorithms to decide which pages to crawl and how often, so the update process is outside of our control.

What to say
Administrators can edit that page to expand the description, up to 150 characters (the recommended length for a meta description is 80-240 characters). Descriptions should include common search terms that casual fans might use when looking for your site on a search engine.



MediaWiki:Description in action

 * Wookieepedia
 * MediaWiki:Description - MediaWiki code on Wookieepedia
 * http://www.google.com/search?q=wookieepedia - Wookieepedia on Google search results.


 * RuneScape Wiki
 * MediaWiki:Description - MediaWiki code on RuneScape Wiki
 * http://www.google.com/search?q=runescape+wiki - RuneScape Wiki on Google search results.


 * Warriors Wiki
 * MediaWiki:Description - MediaWiki code on Warriors Wiki
 * http://www.google.com/search?q=warriors+wiki - Warriors Wiki on Google search results.

Further help and feedback
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