Problems with Google results
-
Hi Everybody,
I ve been dealing with this issue for a while now. i have a multilingual website: www.vallnord.com
When a search for Vallnord in Google it always shows the result in Catalan, but it does not show what I specified in the meta description, it displays what it crawls from the home page.
I have 2 problems here:
-
It is not showing my meta description. What can I do?
-
It is not showing the language from which the search was made. Example: if you search from Google.com and your default language is english it should been displayed the result from the english HTML. www.vallnord.com/en but it is not like this. It is always the catalan (default language of the site) the one that is displayed.
I have tried several things already:
-
Inserting the Hreflang function
-
Changing the descriptions
-
Resubmitting the sitemap via Google Webmaster
I can not figure out what is going on because if you search: "Vallnord Castellano" it will display the spanish URL but still not the proper description.
Moreover if you search: "www.vallnord.com/es" on google , it will display the proper URL and description.
FYI, I am using 301 redirects for the languages: es.vallnord.com it is the sames as www.vallnord.com/es
In addition to this, If using Yahoo search engine there is no problem. it will show the proper language. from yahoo.com the first result is in english and from yahoo.es the first result Spanish.
So any idea what would be the problem?And furthermore, any Idea which would be the solution?
Thanks in advance,
Guido.
-
-
Mmm...
if I search "Vallnord" in Google.com, I see as first result http://www.vallnord.com/en and the description snippet is actually its meta description tag.
As second result I've the .com (the catalan version). In this case the meta description is generated by Google itself as the original one is everything but a description:
<meta name="<a class="attribute-value">description</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Arcalís | Arinsal | Pal. Andorra</a>" />
In the case of the spanish version, it doesn't appear in the google.es SERPs when I search both for Vallnord and Vallnord castellano. You have to click on "more results from Vallnord to see it.
In this case, I suppose it is due to the fact the catalan is a language that you cannot geotarget as you can do with spanish or english, for instance (I'm not going to enter in "nationalism" issues :D).
That means that it appears in any Googles, also the spanish one. And having the .com a stronger link profile than the spanish one, it appears in the spanish SERPs.
The reason why your meta description doesn't appear when you do a search for "Vallnord" is quite simple, imho: the word Vallnord it's not present at all in the meta description, therefore Google compose the snippet assembling phrases of your home page where Vallnord is present.
-
Hi Gianluca,
Thanks for your email.
Yannick answer did not solve my problem. Do you have any better solution? How can I tell Google to read my description?
Does this take a lot of time? or should it be changed immediately?
Thanks,
Guido.
-
Hola Guide, did the Yannick answers helped you solving the issue, especially the 2nd one? I say so, because I still see Google choosing to show a description other than yours in the SERPs. A description which is taken directly from the home page content (surely because it thinks it better respond to the queries done by the users).
-
Ah yes, didnt see the meta langauge tag. Sorry about that. Try the links approach. Takes more time, but works.
Your meta description is very short. Try to get close to (but not more then) 160 - 165 chars and see what happens.
-
Hi Yannick,
Thanks for your answer.
-
My descriptions are about skiing, so the content is relevant on one hand. In the other hand it is not showing DMOZ description. So i do not understand why google is not respecting my meta description.
-
I need to tell Google all the different languages urls have the same content. that is what I was trying to do with the hreflang. but it did not work.
That tag is already inserted
regard,
G.
-
-
1. Their might be a mismatch between what is in your meta description and what content there is on your site. If you talk about french fries in your description, but it's not in the content of your site. Google will more often choose a snippoet from your site. Second thing that could happen is that if you are listed in DMOZ, Google sometimes takes the description given there, to be your desciption in the search engines.
2. Try
<meta http-equiv="language" content="EN">
But number 2 is not so easy. If you get a lot of links to your homepage, google will just decide that the .com url is more relevant to users than the /en/ version when ppl search for vallnord. So getting more link with Vallnord as <a>to the /en/ version might help with that problem.</a>
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Weird Bing Search Results
Hi all, I'm hoping someone can explain what's going on here, because after hours of searching I cannot find anyone having the same problem... We use Bing search to provide the site search functionality on our website and recently for a particular keyword search, the results include several pages which are not on our site: they are on completely different domains! You can replicate it by going to bing.com and using the "site:" operator together with that keyword. Again, results from other domains appear in amongst the pages on our site. I cannot find any other keywords which produce this same behaviour: every other keyword I have tried shows only results from our site. However, I obviously haven't tested absolutely every possible keyword combination. Bing isn't "padding" out the results or anything like that, because we have more than enough pages referencing this term on the site, and I'm at a total loss as to why this is happening. So, I suppose my question is: has anyone ever had this happen to them? And if so, what did they do about it? Many thanks, Dan
Algorithm Updates | | clarkovitch0 -
SEO - Google Local Listing & Same Day Delivery
Hi We are looking to offer same day delivery if you're in a 20 mile radius to us. I'm trying to do some research on how to optimise this for Google organic listings. Would this be the same as optimising for a local business listing? I'm not sure where to start. Thanks! Becky
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Anyone Notice Google's Latest Change Seems to Favor Google Books?
I've noticed a change in the search results lately. As I search around I notice a lot of results from books.google.com Seems a little (ok a lot) self serving... JMHO
Algorithm Updates | | get4it0 -
Satisfaction survey on Google search results
Anybody else noticing Google satisfaction surveys on long-tail results? I'm only seeing it when there are no ads... 6071fb3341.png
Algorithm Updates | | Propecta1 -
How Does Google Treat External Links to URLs with # Anchors?
Here are two URLs to explain this example: **Original URL: **example.com/1/ **URL that points to anchor within the webpage above: **example.com/1/#anchor Does Google treat these two URLs as separate entities or the same? For example, does an external link to the anchor URL pass full PageRank value to the original URL? How does Google handle this? Is there anything negative about this situation? Are there any risks associated with links to the anchor URL? Finally, is it more valuable for an external link to point to the URL without an anchor?
Algorithm Updates | | SAMarketing0 -
7 Pack Google Serps?
What is the best way to get into the 7 pack of google serps? I have a site that ranked well before this changed but not was pushed back to page 2. I have Unique content and I currently have provided my info to all the standard local sites, like Yelp, Manta, Local.com and others. I already have a Google Local page and I also have links from local sites. What else can be done?
Algorithm Updates | | bronxpad0 -
Proper Way To Submit A Reconsideration Request To Google
Hello, In previous posts, I was speaking about how we were penalized by Google for unnatural links. Basically 50,000 our of our 58,000 links were coming from 4-5 sites with the same exact anchor text and img alt tags. This obviously was causing our issues. Needless to say, I wen through the complete link profile to determine that all of the links besides this were of natrural origins. My question here is what is the accepted protocol of submitting a reinclusion request; For example, how long should it be? Should I disclose that I was in fact using paid links, and now that I removed (or at least nofollowed) them? I want to make sure that the request as good as it should so I can get our rankings up in a timely manner. Also, how long until the request is typically aknowledged? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BestOdds0 -
Related Searches in Google
Hello, We're helping a client remove/minimize some negative information about their brand in Google's search results. Just curious about your take on if the related searches that appear at the bottom of Google search results can in any way be influenced or if it is more a combination of so many factors that any one person or organization wouldn't be able to change very easily? I've heard the related results could be influenced if enough queries generated overtake the "negative" queries done initially but I feel like that is venturing into black hat land a bit. thanks -Mike
Algorithm Updates | | mattmainpath0