curriculum/challenges/english/blocks/lecture-understanding-how-html-affects-seo/67083952f800051a8a21fcfd.md
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a practice that optimizes web pages so they become more visible and rank higher on search engines. One way to improve your site's SEO, is to provide a short description for the web page using the meta element. Here is an example of using the meta element to set a page description for a gardening site:
<meta
name="description"
content="Discover expert tips and techniques for gardening in small spaces, choosing the right plants, and maintaining a thriving garden."
/>
By setting the name attribute to description, it ensures that browsers, search engines, and other web tools correctly interpret this metadata. The content attribute is where you will place your description. It is recommended that you keep your descriptions short and concise. This is because search engines will often truncate the description based on the results page layout.
Similar to other types of meta elements, the meta description will not be visible on the web page itself. One place where the page description can be found is in the search engine results page snippet. Here are some examples of page result snippets for freeCodeCamp's subreddit and GitHub repositories:
r\FreeCodeCamp: This is the official subreddit for the freeCodeCamp.org community. Learn to
code for free together with millions of other people...
Our full-stack web development and machine learning curriculum is completely free and self-
paced. We have thousands of interactive coding challenges to help you...
In the examples, each of the page descriptions are located just beneath the site links. Within a couple of seconds, users can get a general sense of what the page is about and decide to click on the links for more information.
Even though meta descriptions won't directly affect a site's ranking on search engine, having a strong description could result in more traffic to your website.
Which element is used to set the description for a web page?
img
Look closely to the title of this lesson.
meta
slot
Look closely to the title of this lesson.
figure
Look closely to the title of this lesson.
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What does SEO stand for?
Slot Engine Optimization
Refer back to where SEO was talked about.
Site Enhancement Outreach
Refer back to where SEO was talked about.
Social Engagement Optimization
Refer back to where SEO was talked about.
Search Engine Optimization
4
Where does the page's description typically show up?
Inside the figure element.
Refer back to where there are examples showing where the page's descriptions typically show up.
Inside the footer element.
Refer back to where there are examples showing where the page's descriptions typically show up.
In the search engine results page.
In a popup alert message.
Refer back to where there are examples showing where the page's descriptions typically show up.
3