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.
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
-
We've a client that wants to repurpose some of the content on there site but not lose rankings. However its changing the content to an alternative to ....
The Current URL Example would be test.co.uk/prodcut-catogory/product-1 . This side of the business is being sold however they have products elsewhere in the range that can be used as alternatives to the product range that will be moved, so they want to amend these pages with an " alternative " slant. Example idea would be to change to the following : test.co.uk/prodcut-catogory/alternative-to-product-1, trying not to change the URL to much, keeping the majority of the content the same but adding new copy stating the benefits of using the alternative product. So it becomes a comparison between the two. I appreciate I will have to amend the URLs, titles, meta, H1s, add new copy & preform a 301's. Option 2 Simply write a second page which is all brand new content talking about it being an alternative to the products and doing a 301 from the original page but not amending that. Be great to get peoples feedback on this approach and if there is anything else that I could do to minimise the drop in rankings once I complete the changes. Thank you D
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SDOwner0 -
Is there anything obvious about my site to why it's not converting?
Hi I am reaching out to the community to see if anyone can see why our site is not converting or point out anything that might be hindering conversion. Our site is www.tidy-books.com Any help would really be appreciated. I can provide more details on request Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | tidybooks0 -
How Would You Market A Photo Of Jay-Z Wearing Your Client's Apparel?
If Jay-Z was spotted wearing your client's sweatshirt, how would you maximize the marketing potential of this photo and opportunity to sell more sweatshirts?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | farmiloe0 -
Can using the Google Keywords tool and/or SEOmoz cause problems for my company's IP address?
I just started with a company a few weeks back, working on-site doing SEO work. I've been using SEOmoz as well as Google Adwords' Keywords tool. I just got a message from one of our reps saying that people at the office (and this is a huge office) have reported tons of CAPTCHAs being thrown up frequently. I told them I had been running searches with Google Keywords tool and SEOmoz, but would that really cause that much of a problem? Is there anything I can do in order to fix this, some keyword finders that won't get me in trouble, etc.?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SmokewagonKen0 -
What's the Best Method of Content Distribution
This question is both specific and open ended. I have a new web project I've been working on content for. I paid to have a really sweet research article written and I am in the process of turning it into an info-graphic as well. Being that the the website is so new it doesn't have many customers and few to no blog readership. Now that I will soon have great content for the site should I : A. Post on the Blog ? ( Its a Blogger on a blog. domain.com ) B. Post as a static page on the website ? (domain.com/content) C. Something Else ? Whats the easiest to promote and push traffic to?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | CDUBP
Which will rank best?
Which will rank longer?
Which will rank faster? Any other suggestions to get the content in front of the niche market?0 -
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 -
Thoughts on meta descriptions - best click through rates
Hi All, I recently heard a tip from a prominent SEO'r that meta tags should be custom written by professional copywriters. Well, I want to head down that path. What are your thoughts on these two options: Buy the top-selling <xyz product="">. 20 year warranty, 30 day money guarantee + free, fast shipping! Includes <1-2 features or included accessories of product></xyz> or Buy our top-rated <xyz product="">today</xyz> & save! Over 20 5-star rated reviews + free, fast shipping! Includes <1-2 features or included accessories of product> Would you focus on the warranty, reviews, product accessories, money back guarantee, free shipping over a certain cutoff, customer service (which we have a toll free number for) or another factor? Are there any good articles out there outlining this? Do you think the way I've structured it is good/readable? What about the use of '+' instead of '&'? Is the cutoff limit still 156 chars? Any thoughts/views/ideas are most appreciated! Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | bradkrussell0
