Can someone explain why Dynamic META tags are a good thing?

I just installed this and I'm not quite sure why having each thread contain an individual "description" rather than the forum description would be a good thing?

Keywords I can understand, since it seems to keep the normal ones as well as some additional things listed that are relevant to the specific thread, but... description seems a little strange to me since it appears to completely replace it.

Thanks!

Each page should be optimized for its own individual content. The META description will also be used by the search engine ranking algorithms to determine relevancy and placement in the SERPs; therefore, it's important to make this dynamic as well.

Wont that dillute the impact that a static "description" would have on what the site is about?

On mine, I essentially have a description of what the site is about and basically ask them to become a member of the community.

You're saying it would be better as far as getting higher rankings for the pages if it was relevant to the specific page/thread instead of the overall site?

Yes - I would certainly suggest that it is best to maximize overall traffic on a page by page basis. This is extremely important with forums as they produce such a huge volume of user generated content of which you (as a publisher) have very little control. You can, of course, edit/delete/move content. But it wouldn't be feasible to edit all content! Not to worry. More specific search queries (but still related to your main topic of focus), delivered to the thousands of user pages on your forum really adds up.

On mine, I essentially have a description of what the site is about and basically ask them to become a member of the community.

As far as conversions, you definitely have to keep that in mind as well. Every page of your site should clearly have a banana (as Seth Godin refers to it). More specifically, you should have a clear and obvious call to action (sign-up on your forum, join your newsletter, buy your product, etc). HOWEVER, this can be achieved directly on the page as a part of the template design - so you do not have to rely on your META description for this.

I personally would not worry about the search engines *dilluting* the main keywords it associates with your site due to the META description. But - your homepage should still definitely be optimized for your most relevant keywords.

If your site is niche focused, then even the user generated content that is created will build up a sort of *profile*, as keywords related to what you are doing naturally occur more frequently than not - and should (theoretically) boost your entire sites' relevance for your focal point keywords.

From a conversion standpoint, a user first needs to be convinced that the page they arrive at is really relevant to his/her search. If not, they'll aboard mission. But once you get him/her to the site, it's your job (using onsite marketing factors) to convert them or get them to the next phase of your prospect-to-customer lifecycle.

If you haven't already, you should check out our Relevant Replacements. This is a really interesting way of getting more control over positioning of the most relevant content within a page - and also a great way to boost your keyword relevancy.