DESCRIPTION meta tags in public home and linked pages
Craven Timothy C. · Library and Information Science Research E-Journal · 2001
Random samples of 1,872 web pages registered with Yahoo! and 1,638 pages reachable from Yahoo!-registered pages were analyzed for use of meta tags and specifically those containing descriptions.Seven hundred twenty-seven (38.8 percent) of the Yahoo!-registered pages and 442 (27.0 percent) of the other pages included descriptions in meta tags.Some of the descriptions greatly exceeded typical length guidelines of 150 or two hundred characters.A relatively small number (ten percent of the registered and seven percent of the other pages) duplicated exactly phrasing found in the visible text; most repeated some words and phrases.Contrary to documented advice to web-page writers, pages with less visible text were less likely to have descriptions.Keywords were more likely to appear nearer the beginning of a description than nearer the end.Noun phrases were more common than complete sentences, especially in non-registered pages.