Google using descriptions from other websites instead of site's own meta description

[antdesign]

In the last month or so, Google has started displaying a description under links to my home page in its search results that doesn't actually come from my site.

I have a meta description tag in place and for a very limited set of keywords, that description is displayed, but for the majority of results, it's displaying a description that appears on Alexa.com and a handful of other sites that seem to have copied Alexa's listing, e.g. similarsites.com.

The problem is, the description from these other sites isn't particularly descriptive and mentions a service that we no longer provide.

So my questions are:

• Why is Google doing this? Surely that's broken behaviour.
• How do I fix it?

[MattAntonino]

I (finally) see the confusion - a good reason for me to be careful in word choice. I didn't say "duplicate content" I said "duplicated" content.  What I meant was "repetition" not duplicated but I guess because we see "duplicate content" every day as SEOs I chose the wrong phrase.  What I meant was the duplication / repetition that can happen in the title, as in my example:

"Brisbane SEOs and digital marketing services in Brisbane | SEO | Marketing"

I have many times seen replaced title/description if keywords are repeated in the titles.  I have always cleared it up with noodp and noydir.  In this case I stated that I didn't think that was the real issue but it is one that causes problems.

So the examples I copied in didn't have to do with "duplicate content" as it relates to rel=canonical but it has to do with "duplicated" title keywords. Obviously I wasn't clear enough in the original post and I'm glad to know that.  I still think my advice will work and for the reasons I stated, just with better phrasing.  I definitely didn't mean to be confusing so thanks for pointing it out.

Hope that clears up the misunderstanding and thanks for helping me give better advice - appreciate it.

~Matt

[antdesign]

brisbane web development may get more searches but I also don't rank nearly as well for it as I do for terms with freelance in it.

Most of the enquiries I get follow on from searches that contain freelance and brisbane in the query, whereas brisbane web development is the only one of about 30 keyword phrases that I've been tracking that is showing the correct description.

As far as changing over time: it's only in the last month that these incorrect descriptions have shown up; everything's been fine up until now.

[RobertFisher]

If you look at the conversation between Matt and I, you will see that your meta you do not want is showing in dmoz and a few directory sites. Since the query, freelance web design brisbane is a low volume query, and brisbane web development is getting 2400 searches per month, I would not worry too much about it.

Every search I did that I was able to find you had corrected meta. The one you don't like was last used on your site in mid 2011 it appears. I think over time it will change, but putting too much into it is not worth the time.

All the best.

[RobertFisher]

Matt,

This info from google doesn't have anything to do with duplicate content.

The first one is about title tags and even that says they (Google) may try to improve the title. Nothing about the meta.

The second is from a Google forum in 2008 and says to first check dmoz to see if the meta is appearing there.  If you just say, hey use noodp, noydir, you are making an assumption that is problematic.

The third where you have John Mueller, it is again about Titles and not using keyword stuffing.

Here is the issue Matt: When you state something like that (and I have made the same mistake) and leave a lot out, someone who doesn't do this day to day, assumes something that is simply not true. Frankly, I know of no instance where duplicate content has caused a SERP snippet to change.

Yes, you can use noodp, noydir, but you need to explain why and not say its because of duplicate content. The snippet he gives says "Provides a range of web design and print design services."  If you put that search on Google.com.au, there is no duplicate content issue.

Yes, that does appear on dmoz, not on Yahoo Directory. But, it also appears on several directory type sites. Will using noodp keep it from happening? Only if that is the source.

So, I have thumbed you up for the courtesy of a reply to me (evens out the thumb down). Thanks for the reply and, feel free to let me know if I stray or if you believe something here is incorrect. I am open to being wrong and having it pointed out.

All the best,

Robert

[antdesign]

Robert, if you do a search for freelance web design brisbane (result is on the first page for me in google.com.au), you'll see the sort of thing I'm referring to. This is what's coming up for most of the keywords I'm tracking for my site.

If you do a search for brisbane web development (result on page 9 although a few days ago it was page 15), you'll see the snippet saying what my meta description tag for the home page says, i.e. what I want it to say.

[MattAntonino]

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35624

"Avoid keyword stuffing. It's sometimes helpful to have a few descriptive terms in the title, but there’s no reason to have the same words or phrases appear multiple times. A title like "Foobar, foo bar, foobars, foo bars" doesn't help the user, and this kind of keyword stuffing can make your results look spammy to Google and to users."

If we’ve detected that a particular result has one of the above issues with its title, we may try to generate an improved title from anchors, on-page text, or other sources.

---

Google's suggestion is basically what I said above:

If you're concerned about content in your title or snippet, you may want to double-check that this content doesn't appear on your site.  If it doesn't, try searching Google.com for the title or snippet enclosed in quotation marks. This will display pages on the web that refer to your site using this text. If you contact these webmasters to request that they change their information about your site, any changes to their sites will be recognized by our crawler after we next crawl their pages.

---

In addition, John Mueller gave this advice in a post on one of Google's blogs:

"In general, when we run across titles that appear to be sub-optimal, we may choose to rewrite them in the search results. This could happen when the titles are particularly short, shared across large parts of your site or appear to be mostly a collection of keywords. One thing you can do to help prevent this is to make sure that your titles and descriptions are relevant, unique and compelling, without being "stuffed" with too much boilerplate text across your site."

---------------------------------

(Pretty much sounds like what I said but you thumbed me down for.)

[RobertFisher]

Matt,

Where are you getting: **Usually it's duplicated content that gets your meta replaced **

I cannot find any reference to it anywhere in GWMT, etc.

Thanks,

Robert

[RobertFisher]

I think I understand, but want to be sure. The first img attached is my listing in SERPs here in US with my homepage drumbeatmarketing.net/ Below the SERP link for the query are sitelinks.

The next is your Home Page meta per SEOmoz tool

The next is your About Page meta per SEOmoz tool

The last is your SERP page from Google.com.au showing ABOUT page as the first page to show. Note query was Tyssen design australia

Note that the SERP snippet and the meta you have are the same for that ABOUT page. This would mean that Google is showing precisely what you are asking for it to show.

If this was recently changed, it may not yet have been reindexed hence the need to resubmit sitemap or do a fetch as google on that page as I previously gave you.

I thought this might be a site link issue originally and should have done a bit more investigating and asked you more. If what you are seeing and what I am seeing is the same, then the issue is that you are assuming your homepage is what is first in SERP and it is About page. Short of that, I would need to know what meta you have for homepage, what query gives wrong result, etc.

Hope this helps you out.

Robert

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[antdesign]

Hi Robert, no they're definitely not site links, can verify that they're search results snippets.

[RobertFisher]

John,

I would be curious to see if this changes anything for you. I have sites that are listed with the Open Directory Project (aka dmoz) and with Yahoo (we paid for the listings in Yahoo for our client). I do not see Google grabbing those descriptions any longer for use in the SERP snippet.

One thing I would suggest if you believe the noodp, noydir (both good links) change will make a difference is to resubmit your sitemap and/or run a couple of Fetch as Googles on some of your site url's like your home page where you are seeing this. I doubt anything will change.

Also, it sounds as if what you are talking about are site links as opposed to the search snippet that draws from the meta description. With site links, you can turn those off  (demote them) for ninety days if incorrect. Go into WMT and on your site you will see: Configuration. Click and you will see sitelinks. Note that if you are doing this for your home page you add nothing to the url that you see first.

Here is info straight from GWMT:

Demote a sitelink URL:

1. On the Webmaster Tools Home page, click the site you want.
2. Under Site configuration, click Sitelinks.
3. In the For this search result box, complete the URL for which you don't want a specific sitelink URL to appear. (How to find the right URL.)
4. In the Demote this sitelink URL box, complete the URL of the sitelink you want to demote.

I think you will find this much more effective.

Best

[antdesign]

Thanks, I've just done both of those.

[MattAntonino]

You should include a noodp, noydir tag to try to prevent this.  I saw your title & description and they look fine. Usually it's duplicated content that gets your meta replaced (say Brisbane SEOs and digital marketing services in Brisbane | SEO | Marketing"  That would get you replaced in a heartbeat.

For yours, I don't see that - but they must think the Alexa is more relevant.

1. Change Alexa and ping those changes to Google.

2. Add noydir and noodp to your meta tags.

Hope that helps!