Meta descriptions
-
Hi,
I have placed meta descriptions in a CMS for a client and afterwards checked with the SeoMoz tool "Page elements" that these are embedded correctly. However when checking the SERP for certain pages Google has "composed" the listing from other content than the meta description. What may be the reason, and how to avoid this?
-
True. I've even seem some instances of anchor text being used in descriptions.
-
Det kan hjelpe
But yeah, if it's a decent description (and you seem to be happy with it) I'd look elsewhere for problems first.
-
Hi, there is a DMOZ listing so I could check that, thanks!
-
hi, I'd have to check with the client, but anyway it is in Norwegian so it would probably not help you much! But, the pages in question are not thin on content and are decisively on-topic.
-
Hi Damien,
Not a double post just because I got there first
Would always encourage people to chime in with their own opinions even if it just confirms what was said.
It can help the asker know if an answer is good advice or not
-
Can you post us the URL or is it confidential? It'd be nice to have a look
-
The code I've suggested will only help if it's pulling the description from DMOZ or the Yahoo Directory. Do you have a listing in either? If so is it the same as what is showing?
Even if you do have a listing it doesn't necessarily mean that's where it's getting it from.
As I say, if you've just made the change, wait for a week or so and if your description is long then make it fit into a normal SERPs length snippet.
However it may be that you can't actually do anything to change Google's mind on what it shows for that search term (you may also find the snippet is different depending on what is searched for).
-
hi, thanks but the search to test this was with using the same keywords used for the title-tag and in the meta description and on-site content, so I'm ruling out lack of relevancy here.
-
hi, thanks! The meta description is based on kw research and on page content so relevancy cannot be the issue. Probably they are not using meta-robots and they need to place the code you suggested...?
-
Sorry for double-post! ha
-
Hey,
If you're description isn't as relevant to the keyword you've used to search for your site then search engines may decide to put something more relevant in the description that it has pulled off the page.
To remedy this try and rewrite your description to be more relevant to your targeted keyword.
Hope this helps
DD
-
First give it at least a week or so to update, it doesn't happen immediately.
But, yeah, Google does that sometimes if it finds a chunk of text it thinks is more relevant to the users' search. I've seen this mostly happen on pages with very little text content (image or video heavy pages say) but sometimes it's just because it doesn't think your description is relevant to your page.
I assume that it's from the page and not your DMOZ or YDIR description (if it is either of those add or to your pages). Very small possibility if you've added a different description to a lot of other directories it's being picked up there.
Not too much you can do about it if none of these. Make sure your description is accurate and if it's more than 150 characters try to bring it in under that.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Use of '&' in meta title
Hi, I know that use of '&' would be helpful to save space and also add more keyword variation to the title tag. But just want to make sure if it matters if I use '&' in most of my title tags? And also is it common to use more than & in one title? Would the following title be different in Google's perspective regardless of the title length? I am thinking they are all targeting the keywords 'fruit cake' and 'fruit bread', but the first one is the best. buy fruit cake & bread buy fruit cake & fruit bread buy fruit cake and fruit bread Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | russellbrown0 -
How to add meta descriptions in WordPress
Hello, I have a WordPress website in which the front page is built entirely with text widgets. How would I add key words and meta descriptions. Yoast does not give an option for this and it seems WordPress does not support meta descriptions. Anyone have ideas? The website is championfitprogram.com
On-Page Optimization | | donsilvernail0 -
Regarding Google Title 'Width' and changing Meta Titles w/o Penalty?
A vast majority of pages on my site are now too wide (the character count was fine prior to the March update). I want to go through and update them so they display properly and are not too wide.However, I am concerned, as my understanding was that changing Meta Titles is dangerous and can have a negative effect on your rankings and can cause real issues. Is this an opportunity to change my Titles all-together without any kind of penalty? Or can I only trim the end part? In summary: 1. Can I edit all of my Meta Titles without affecting my rankings? 2. If no, how do I edit them properly to fit within the proper width and not cause any issues? 3. If yes, I can go through and change all my Meta Titles to whatever extent and optimize them to reflect latest best practices? There are changes I wanted to make to all my meta titles but I've been afraid to... due to fear of rankings drops etc Any help with this would be greatly appreciated
On-Page Optimization | | lawfirm0 -
Description tag not showing in the SERPs because page is blocked by Robots, but the page isn't blocked. Any help?
While checking some SERP results for a few pages of a site this morning I noticed that some pages were returning this message instead of a description tag, A description for this result is not avaliable because of this site's robot.s.txt The odd thing is the page isn't blocked in the Robots.txt. The page is using Yoast SEO Plugin to populate meta data though. Anyone else had this happen and have a fix?
On-Page Optimization | | mac22330 -
Wordpress Duplicate Meta Title Issue
Hi, Google webmasters tools is reporting that I have 254 blog pages with duplicate metta titles. Sample below; /blog/2012/06/
On-Page Optimization | | UnderMe
/blog/2012/07/
/blog/2012/08/
/blog/2012/10/
/blog/2012/12/
/blog/2013/01/
/blog/
/blog/?s=boxer
/blog/?s=briefs
/blog/?s=cufflinks
/blog/category/swimwear/
/blog/category/uncategorized/ Can anyone advise what is the best way to address this issue as wordpress seems to assign the site title and tag line set in general settings as the meta title for all blog posts and pages. Thanks0 -
Why would meta description text get added to the meta HTTP-EQUIV tag?
For one of my clients, the people coding the site added the meta description content to the HTTP-EQUIV tag as part of the "name" attribute. Curious if anyone has seen this practice before?! I notified them that the description meta tag was not coded properly -- the search engines do not interpret the "name" attribute and the text that is in it. Anyway, It looks like: **<meta http-equiv="<a class="attribute-value">Content-Type</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">text/html; charset=utf-8</a>" name="... <a class="attribute-value">and services. ... .</a>" />**
On-Page Optimization | | alankoen1230 -
ECommerce Product Meta Descriptions vs. Product Descriptions
Wondering if using on-page product descriptions as the individual product meta descriptions is a best practice for an eCommerce site? Instead of writing two product descriptions (one regular and one meta), I am thinking if the product copy is SEO rich, we'd be good to use just the one for both purposes. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Seems that many companies follow this practice. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | kennyrowe1 -
Meta Description not displaying in Google
Hi Mozzers, I have a client that wants to change the way the meta description for some of his pages is being displayed. I've tried using the NOOPD and NOYDIR tags and its not worked. This isn't the client but perform this search in Google.ie - "accommodation newry daft" you get this result - http://www.google.ie/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=accommodation+newry+daft&pbx=1&oq=accommodation+newry+daft&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=11197l11712l2l12016l5l5l0l0l0l0l186l851l0.5l5l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=f5c640577bb5a285&biw=1600&bih=775 See how Daft.com (2nd results down) has the text "10+ items" in the description- my client has this as well as do many other competitors but its not present in the meta description tag. Anyone know how to get rid of this and get the good old meta descrition in the SERPs? Thanks BUsh
On-Page Optimization | | Bush_JSM0