[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #20194: Add Description meta to General Settings

[WordPress Trac]

#20194: Add Description meta to General Settings
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 Reporter:  jane             |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General          |     Version:  3.3
 Severity:  minor            |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch      |
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Comment (by joostdevalk):

 Replying to [comment:23 Otto42]:
 > Replying to [comment:20 joostdevalk]:
 > > descriptions only show up in Google when they contain the keyword that
 someone searched for.
 >
 > Yeah, that's just false. Sorry, but not close to correct, at all. I can
 prove this incorrect with every single search I do.
 >
 > > The other issue is that MANY themes use the excerpt for the front page
 or other index type pages and they need more text than the 155 chars you'd
 want in a meta description...
 >
 > You know, this is the problem I have with like 95% of the "SEO" crap out
 there. They're literally making stuff up out of nothing.
 >
 > Where, exactly, did you get the "155 chars" from? It's in no standards
 document. There's nothing preventing you from putting more than that into
 there. There's nothing anywhere on Google's site that says "we only read
 the first 155 chars".
 >
 > Basically, the notion that 155 is what you want is complete nonsense.
 You're extrapolating a "best practice" from anecdotal BS and from what
 Google currently does on some sites that you've witnessed.
 >
 > If there was valuable information beyond 155 chars, then Google would
 take advantage of it. The problem with "SEO" is that it's too limiting. It
 relies on the current practices of search engines and doesn't have any
 sort of notion of creating what's best for people. Create what's best for
 people and for *sanity* and Google will change their algorithms to
 accommodate it.
 >
 > We should NOT be programming our code to accommodate what Google does.
 We should be programming it to be *correct*, and then let Google adapt to
 US.

 I've waited for days to respond to this because I got incredibly mad with
 how you treat me, a member of your community who just tries to do well and
 weighed in when Nacin asked me to. How would you appreciate it if I called
 your job "crap"? How is it an argument what you think if it's not based on
 experience and research?

 You're adding an SEO feature, whether you like it or not. You can do it
 well, you can do it wrong, as long as you add the proper filters, I'll
 make my plugin handle it. Whatever you think you've seen in search results
 doesn't count. I test these things on a regular basis and I don't think. I
 know.

 Anyway, I'd appreciate an apology. I'm not making stuff up out of nothing
 and I'm not going to stand here and be insulted.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/20194#comment:31>
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