The description tag is one of the SEO data fields your website can take advantage of. Like the title, the description tag offers the opportunity to display information about the content of the selected page on search engines’results.
What is the “description tag”?
The description tag, or field, is displayed in search listings as the black text under the blue text of the title. While not as important as the title text in regards to SEO, it nonetheless serves a very useful purpose in providing a quick overview of what the site or individual page is about.
Most search engines look for a description field and when none exists, they often automatically take the first 160 characters from the page they are presenting. This can at times lead to very unpredictable results! Therefore, it is important to ensure that you enter a title AND a description as you create each new page so that when an individual page is indexed, you already have the description in place.
What to include
The description field is about 160 characters (including spaces and punctuation) so you will have to be brief and ruthless in your word selection. We recommend having a few different description fields to rotate between each page. It is most helpful if your description is targeted towards the individual page and not just general in nature. This will avoid visitors being directed to a page that does not offer the information they are looking for (which can result in frustration and a reluctance to visit your site again!).
Look at the description field as a mini elevator pitch. In this short sentence or two you have the ability to make the case for a searcher to select your site. Forget throwaway words like “quality”, “best”, “superior” and so forth. They only waste space in your description. Focus on the benefit that your site, firm or service offers.. “Free shipping”,“100% guarantee”, “Open 24 hours” and other such features are important here.
If you have a phone number,make that the last 12 characters of your description field. This one little addition means someone can contact you without having to click on through to your website. A small advantage maybe, but, sometimes all it takes is one phone call to make a sale!
Creating the tag
Most website development packages (WordPress, Joomla, Dreamweaver, Frontpage and so on) have fileds for each page to add the title and description fields. You can also go back to an existing site and add this information in at a later date.
So, as you create your website, and/or are following your Cluepad recommendations, take the opportunity to optimize your description field. Remember that when your newly optimized site is on the first page of Google, you now have 160 characters to promote your business.
A bonus!
Oh, by the way, take your 160 character description and stretch it to 200 characters to use in your Google Places business description block—it t will then do double duty! 
