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.
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
-
Ensuring that Google Display my Meta Descriptions
Hello, I have a few pages that appear in SERPs with the page copy as opposed to the meta descriptions I wrote, is there any way to try & force the meta descriptions to be displayed? Its a WordPress site using Yoast
On-Page Optimization | | jasongmcmahon0 -
2 sets of meta tags in html
I use Wordpress for my business website...when I was looking at my html using "source" on Google, I noticed it looks like my site html has 2 sets of meta tags? www.seadwellers.com is my site
On-Page Optimization | | sdwellers
I do not know why, and I am not sure how to get into my html using Wordpress to delete one set?1 -
Google is NOT showing up the right META DESCRIPTION
Hi, Recently I changed titles and meta descriptions of some pages. The problem is that google have updated the titles but not the meta descriptions.. Ive also checekd the source code of the google cached version of the pages crawled and the meta description reflect the changes i did...but the changes don't appear in google. Do you have some solution/advice for the issue? Tx so Much
On-Page Optimization | | tourtravel0 -
Meta Title for large Metro Area landing page
Hello! I am creating "metro landing pages" for an organization that has a 10-18 locations per metro city. The landing page houses brief information about the organization as a whole and then it has the locations listed with links to their respective pages. My question is how to optimize these titles. My sample city is Atlanta, GA. This metro page includes 18 locations from the Atlanta area. Marietta, Sandy Springs, Decatur, etc... My question is what is the best Meta Title to use for a Metro Page like this? Would it be best to say Day Care in Metro Atlanta | ABC Childcare Company | Child Care Atlanta Area or is their a better way to optimize a large Metro landing page? I really appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!!!
On-Page Optimization | | TracSoft0 -
Changing url in connection with meta title inconsistency
We run a site, which is a directory type one, where visitors can look for local businesses per city as well (at some point similar to the 'Yelp concept'). Now, we use www.example.com as the homepage, and the www.example.com/city1, where city1 is the capital of our country, is 301 redirected to the homepage, so this is your default setting. When you choose e.g city2, your url changes to www.example.com/city2, and the city value is stored in a cookie. Then, when you leave the session, and return to the site later on, you will see the homepage url, but with your previous choice of city (in case you let cookies be stored). My concern is, that the meta title always contains the chosen city name, so when you return to the website, and you previously used city2, you will now see the homepage url (which normally belongs to city1), but with the meta title of city2 or with any other previously chosen city. Does this mean a problem, and should I always use the correct url, which would be www.example.com/cityX, or this could not cause a problem for me? If it does, would you mind sharing me the exact problems as well? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | Dilbak0 -
Does keyword at the very front of meta description have impact?
I know that it is important to have your primary keyword target as the first word or two words of your title tag. But what about your meta description tag? does it matter where they keyword is in the description tag? I see a lot of other sites stuffing their keywords right at the front of the description tag and it looks somewhat unnatural. What's your take? do you put the primary keyword as the first word or two words of your description tag?
On-Page Optimization | | adriandg0 -
Fixing Wordpress Title and Description Tag Placement
I know how important the title and description tag are and I know it is important to have them place at the top of the code. However, when I view the source on a Wordpress template, I see it looks messy. Here is an example of what the source looks like. Is there a plugin or an adjustment to be made so the code is cleaner? To get rid of spaces and blank lines in code. Or should I just not worry about the way the code looks? Notice the first example has a break after the <title>, then after the title there is this</p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><strong><em><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> </em></strong></p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><strong><em> </em></strong>then the description? Can that be moved?</p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"> </p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><br /></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en-US"></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><br /></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span> </span><head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><br /></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span> </span><title></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><br /></span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span> </span>tite text goes here <span> </span></title> " /> Here there are no breaks after <title>and the <title> is directly above the description</p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"> </p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"></span></p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"> </span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr" lang="en-US"></span></p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><head profile="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"></span></p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /></span></p> <p style="color: #5e5e5e;"><span style="color: #5e5e5e;"><title>tite text goes here</title>
On-Page Optimization | | hfranz0 -
Will a "no follow" "no index" meta tag resolve duplicate content issue?
I have a duplicate content issue. If the page has already been indexed will a no follow no index tag resolve the issue or do I also need a rel canonical statement?
On-Page Optimization | | McKeeMarketing0
