Can Changing Meta Descriptions Negatively Impact SERP's?
-
I have just had a page start ranking well in key SERP's and I would like to change the meta description and add a price as we are extremely competative in that line.
Could changing the meta description now a page is ranking negatively impact the SERP placing?
Does anyone have any experience with this?
-
Hey Robert,
I was wondering what your experiences where with the changing meta descriptions?
My team was looking to do something similar with one of our sites and we are worried about changing meta descriptions and whether that would affect us negatively.
Thanks
-
Good point Lewis.
How do so what code do I use? (£
I don't have much experience with this.
-
The general line is that we should design for the user and not the search engine so if a meta description is compelling and attracts users then that would be exactly what you are doing.
If you believe that putting the price will increase the click through then I would go for it.
Had some advice from Will Critchlow when I asked about the use of the £ symbol in meta descriptions and he said that we should "use HTML encoding (£ rather than £). We tend to advise going for ASCII only as character encoding opens you up to a world of pain, but HTML entities should generally be fine"
-
I have added a price to the Meta Description.. as I believe we are selling this product @ the cheapest price in the country..
I agree it could bring forward any change in any case.
What do you think googles attitude is towards promotional Meta descriptions?
Hopefully a good meta tag that gets a click through would be taken into account ahead of a promotional meta description that mentions price.
What do you think?
-
I can see what you're getting at, but I agree with Lewis-SEO. Given that meta description is not visible on the page any changes (other than perhaps old school spammy) are just noted and displayed. If you were to change something on-page at the same time it may well get re-assessed, but that's not what we were discussing.
Even if it were to trigger a re-assessment all it would be doing is reviewing that page and putting it in it's "correct" place in the SERPs. Had you not done anything to it, it would still have dropped as soon as it was re-crawled regardless, all initiating a crawl would do is bring forward the inevitable.
Of course if we go on the theory that Google has started using user data; if the meta description changed how the page converted or how people reacted to the page (and you could check your analytics) it could effect your rankings.
Basically if users are now leaving your page in droves because of a misleading meta description that may have a knock on effect.
-
I guess what I mean is...
I know it is not supposed to influence SERP's but
Logically if a meta description changes radically I would imagine there would be some mechanisim thats is triggered for at least reviewing the SERP's placement for that page.
So the content of the meta description is irrelevant but the fact it may have changed would flag up somewhere in the Algo?
Its just a thought...
-
The meta description tag doesn't influence SERP's.
As you know search engines often use it as the description for your page in search results.As such a relevant, unique, compelling meta description can have a positive influence on how many clicks you get on your search listing.
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
-
Metadescription (SERP's) with green checkmarks: spammy or not?
HI Will a Metadescription with GREEN checkmarks be perceived as spammy in general? Or is one with BLACK checkmarks better? Depends on the topic/target audience, etc.? --> see screenshots. No doubt that the green will stand up more (increases CTR) in the SERPS but if it is perceived as less trustworthy or even spammy by the target audience its not worth doing it. Any experience with that? Would really like to know what do you think about it. Cheers, Cesare 0G3Fd
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Cesare.Marchetti0 -
How can I track if a landing page assists a lead/goal to another page in Google Analytics?
For example, I'm running a PPC campaign for site.com/landing-page and it consists of different product pages like below: site.com/product-1 site.com/product-2 site.com/product-3 How to determine if /landing-page assists a lead/goal to a specific product page in Analytics? Example scenario: /landing-page -> /product-3 -> Lead TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
Where I can place a banner/message in my site telling I have a new website?
Where I should place a banner or a message in my old site to tell user that I have a new website? Thanks in advance!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | esiow20130 -
How can I track the traffic source/keyword of form submissions?
I'm using Google Analytics on www.nhfinehomes.com and would like to track the source of leads submitted via form submissions. Ideally, I could track if the lead originated from organic search (and what keyword phrase), PPC, referral links, etc. Is this possible with Google Analytics and if so, can anyone point to some documentation on how to do this or better yet someone who can help me set this up? This site is running ASP.NET and uses JQuery so there is not a 'traditional' thank you page that I can reference. I'm not a programmer and do not pretend to be one! Thanks in advance. Link
Conversion Rate Optimization | | LinkMoser0 -
Is it better to get a new site instead of maintaining a category? I'm stuck.
If you had a website "Food for Dogs" and: Food for German shepherds was improving in search traffic & conversions Snack Food for German shepherds had no change and never resulted in conversions but resulted in many leads for #1 Food for Poodles was unchanged but improving conversions Here's the kicker... Food Container for Dogs was super high traffic but with no conversions or any activity to other categories Would you redirect "food container for dogs" to a different site and delete that tab from the original site completely? It's still related but does not offer any $ value or leads to any of the other categories. Just note that we have a different interest in this category that will support the other categories at one time, but not any time soon. We also have a major group on LinkedIN that's grown to thousands of members for the "food container for dogs" category. On top of it all, the "food container for dogs" has been increasing in rank on Google for several keyphrases to positions 2-5 (nationally) Other important question: Would keeping "food container for dogs" influence the ranking of the other keywords? (by dilution of the site's PR or any other reason?)
Conversion Rate Optimization | | HMCOE0 -
Listing Products With Descriptions: What Order Should They Be In?
This is more a user experience / conversion rate question than anything else. We sell several levels of membership to our organization. Seven to be exact. They range from Student memberships at $35 a year to very specialized memberships at $4,500 - $6,500 a year. I looked for information on how these products should be listed, but found nothing. Currently, they are listed with the most expensive level listed first. It's the only one displayed above the fold. I believe this is a bad choice. At a glance to a consumer, it looks like a membership costs $4,500 instead of a more reasonable (and more popular) $500 a year price. I don't want to start with the $35 option either. That is heavily discounted for students. Would it be odd to list the best sellers first and then have everything else listed underneath? Or does it need to be in price order? So, if anyone has an opinion or has had experience with something similar or has seen a case study, I'd appreciate the input. Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | HDI0 -
Will adding to a video's length affect my Rich Snippets?
Most people get to the end of my videos, 85% or so, but there's no call to action at the end of them. So I'd like to suggest what they could do or read next; along the lines of 'Add to basket and receive your XYZ tomorrow'. This will make the video longer and therefore google will know it has changed, I guess. I see no reason for them to object to this but you never you.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Brocberry0 -
How can I improve my Adsense CTR / CPC?
Here's one page where my Ads' setup can be seen: http://www.gameseducativos.com/guarda-do-zoologico/quebra-cabecas
Conversion Rate Optimization | | rpedri0