Can you change meta description at any time without loosing rankings?
-
I'm wondering if it is possible to change the meta description of a page on your site at any time without it affecting rankings on google?
Is it only changing how my SERP looks? Or could bad things happen to changing your meta description?
Appreciate all opinions on this one, thank you guys!
-
Right. Thanks for the advice again! I will definitely go for custom meta descriptions in the near future.
Cheers
-
Actually i have seen sites thrive with the same description, How ever think of it like this when you search for a product for example say a kettle most results have the word kettle in the description and it is highlighted by Google in the search result so relevant, so if yours is the same through out the site that is not going to happen and the chances are the user will click one that has got the keyword in.
-
Thanks askshopper!
Would having the same meta description through out the site (for a while) be a bad thing? Or could I have it like that for the time being?
I can't change them right now because of some issues with my developers atm.
-
Yes you can change them any time, when the page gets crawled again the description will be updated in search results, try to avoid duplicates & I also recommend putting your keywords in the page meta but at the same time maintaining good quality description for the end user.
-
Great, thanks Matt!
-
Meta descriptions don't affect your rankings in search engines - they just help entice people to click on your results in the search engines - have a look here for further peace of mind - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description
So you can change them at anytime and it won't affect your rankings.
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
-
Specific Ranking Mystery
Hello Mozzers I don't understand this specific ranking example, maybe somebody can help? For the serach term "elipslife" on Google Switzerland a client's page ranks around position 13. A competitor's page ranks at 9. And I don't get why: the competitor's page has no content and its DA is lower. Its PA is higher so I set a link in the client's homepage navigation a couple of weeks ago to lift the client's page PA above that of the competitor. This is not yet reflected in OSE currently however. Any ideas as to what may be the cause? Thx, Chris
On-Page Optimization | | ChrisCronimund0 -
Meta descriptions for subpages in the SERPs
Hey Mozzers! Something occurred to me the other day was that, while we can write title tags and meta descriptions to be within the character count and therefore appear nice and neatly in the SERPs, when Google et al decide to pull subpages out as further site links, it seems to still pull the normal meta description but with a far lower character count. As this looks untidy and could potentially impact CTR, is there a way I can amend the preferred text for the shortened version, via Webmaster Tools, for example? Thanks in advance for your help! Nick.
On-Page Optimization | | themegroup0 -
Changing a page url
I have a page that ranks well (#4) for a good keyword. However, the url has the keyword in it but is misspelled. I would like to change the url to have the correct spelling but do not want to lose the ranking that I have. What is the best and safest way to proceed?
On-Page Optimization | | bhsiao0 -
Will it hurt my rankings if I change the permalinks so late?
I think I did something wrong in the past. My permalink structure is www.keyword.com/postname-keyword Now my website with over 1000 pages has this structure. Now I really would like to change it to a normal structure like www.keyword.com/postname But the problem is my website and its page have good authority and page rank and above 100k pageviews monthly. It will really have a big impact on my business if something goes wrong. Is it worth the risk to change it? Because now often pages who have nothing related with the keyword have the keyword in the permalink. I think this is really not good for the ranking of my subpages. Change or not to change?
On-Page Optimization | | vulonl0 -
You notice rankings go up when..
you link out to wikipedia? I feel there are always benefits to linking out to authority sites like this
On-Page Optimization | | imageworks-2612900 -
Anchor_partial_atpiu??? in ranking factors
Could anybody explain what does it mean anchor_partial_atpiu in ranking factors http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-1
On-Page Optimization | | PeterSEO0 -
Curious meta-tag
Has anyone met this meta tag? <meta name="ranking" content="Top10, Page=1" /> I imagine it has no effect but I'm curios where did it came from, i saw it on many sites
On-Page Optimization | | seo.academy0