The description meta tag is used for the description of the web page by some Search Engines. It also gets used as minor factor by most Search Engines for your search rankings. So you should make sure to include one or two keyword phrases in it. Make sure the description is easy to read. A hard to read description may keep people from clicking on the page, even if it appears really high in the rankings. Google® will use your description if for some reason it has a problem finding text from your page to display, and it can’t find a description for your site from the DMOZ directory to use.
Here is an example description from my dinosaur site:
Be sure to make the description a reasonable length (around 10 and 26 words).
However, as with all ON-Page SEO don’t worry too much about the numbers. Focus on writing good content about the subject your site is covering. Quality content along with quality links is the best way to get consistent traffic to your web site.
