Overlength Meta description
-
Hi, Has anyone got an answer to why a meta description would be showing characters well above 160. The current Meta description is only 10 characters in length but I wanted to know why Google would display so many characters.
Cheers
Phil
-
Gary is absolutely correct. Google can alter your page Titles and Descriptions if they find are not appropriate and can even fetch descriptions from other prominent websites where your website is listed with a description. The best example of such prominent website is the Open Directory Project, Dmoz.org.
So its always recommended to come up with relevant page titles and descriptions that are unique for all your pages.
Most of the time, Google will take the titles and descriptions mentioned by the webmaster in the title tag and description meta tag, but there is no guarantee that this happens 100% of the time. If your website is listed on dmoz and you do not want Google to pickup the description from there, you can use the page level robots meta tag as follows:
Similarly if you do not want Google to pickup the description from Yahoo directory,
Use your page titles and descriptions in such a way that they force the visitor to click on your website in the search results. The title should contain your target term in it. See to it that the Titles and Descriptions have a strong compelling message. Using titles and descriptions optimally can have dramatic improvement in CTR from search results.
Best,
Devanur Rafi
-
Maybe your cms is displaying content as a meta description? Can you show a link?
-
If your description tag is only 10 characters, then Google algo will not find it useful and will replace it with what it thinks is best. It can do this for your Title tags too. Sometimes using Dmoz.
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
-
titles length, URL length and meta descriptions on a subdomain effecting SEO on main domain?
Hi all, I am currently evaluating areas for optimization on my main domain. When doing this, Moz has identified multiple titles and urls that should be shortened and missing meta descriptions on my subdomain (a help center of sorts). As far as I am aware, we have not set up any "no-index" rules for this subdomain. Are these items affecting SEO on my main domain? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | annegretwidmer
Kasey0 -
The meta tags: Title and Description, showing unexpected results on google
When I type my company name on google "Navneet Gems", it shows a very different meta tag then what it actually is. How do I change this meta descrption when its non-existent on my homepage? The worst is, it is having a spelling mistake. We want to correct this.
On-Page Optimization | | Navneet.Agarwal20160 -
Meta Description
Hey folks, I'm having a little problem with meta description. https://www.google.com/search?q=SSl-5+duncan&oq=SSl-5+duncan+&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.3486j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8 If you look at that first result it looks like this: Custom Staggered Strat | Seymour Duncan <cite class="_Rm">www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/custom-staggered-strat</cite>Custom Staggered Strat SSL-5. Home; / Pickups ... Maserati tribute - Fender Stratocaster with seymour duncan ssl 5 ... Talk Tone @seymourduncanpickups ...Even while the meta description code is this:name="description" itemprop="description" content="The ultimate overwound Strat single coil pickup, found in the bridge position of the David Gilmour Signature Fender Stratocaster." />We are seeing the same issue here in many places:https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=seymour duncan blogUsing the All In One SEO Pack - Any suggestions as to what might be causing this or how to fix it?
On-Page Optimization | | ScottOlson0 -
How to overcome blog page 1, 2, 3, etc having no or duplicate meta info?
As the above what is the best way to overcome having the same meta info on your blog pages (not blog posts) So if you have 25 blog posts per page once you exceed this number you then move onto a second blog page, then when you get to 50 you then move onto a 3rd blog page etc etc So if you have thousands f blog pages what is the best method to deal with this rather than having to write 100s of different meta titkes & descriptions? Cheers
On-Page Optimization | | webguru20141 -
Multi channel product descriptions & dupe content issues
Hi When filling in inventory files to upload to the likes of Amazon clients will usually be copying and pasting the product descriptions from the website product descriptions into the Amazon product description field Should they really be re-written to avoid dupe content issues ? I presume not since it is the official description of the product. Please note that i'm talking here about the manufacturers website/product descriptions and their own Amazon shop descriptions. So theirs is the original authoritative description. Cheers Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Meta separators
I've been told that pipes are the best separators for title tags. Can anyone tell me the best ones for H1 and H2 tags? Do I go with pipes, commas, hyphens, underscores...?
On-Page Optimization | | Greatmats0 -
How to Define Best Structure of Title Tag and Meta Description?
I want to define best structure of Title Tag and Meta Description for my eCommerce website. There are too many categories over there and many be increase in near future. There are 7K+ products live on website so, it's quite hard to develop Title Tag and Meta Description for all product pages. That's why I have set automatic Title Tag and Meta Description creation with help of developers. I want to do similar stuff for my category pages. Can anyone suggest me structure of Title Tag and Meta Description which suppose to help me in well over Google's organic result. I have define structure as follow. Title Tag: Category Name: FREE Shipping & Discount Category Name | Vista Stores Meta Description: Category Name with FREE shipping, 100% price guarantee, Buy and save 20% to 40% on attractive, modern and discount Category Name. Meta Keywords: Category Name I also want to give real time example with specific URL. (http://www.vistastores.com/69_21/outdoor/patio-umbrellas.html) Category Name = Patio Umbrellas so with help of above structure Title Tag and Meta Description will be as follow. Title Tag: Patio Umbrellas: FREE Shipping & Discount Patio Umbrellas | Vista Stores Meta Description: Patio Umbrellas with FREE shipping, 100% price guarantee, Buy and save 20% to 40% on attractive, modern and discount Patio Umbrellas. Meta Keywords: Patio Umbrellas So, Does it matter for good performance? If any inputs in same direction so I am eager to read it.
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit0 -
Meta Keywords
Hello Everyone- Quick question about meta keywords. Most SEO's agree that meta keywords are no longer used as a ranking factor in Google. My question is, if a client comes to me and they already have a bunch of meta keywords on their site what would the smart strategy be? 1. Remove all the meta keyword data from the clients site 2. Scale the meta keywords back by only leaving the top keywords in the code? 3. Do nothing Thanks for all your time! Regards, Bill Parlaman
On-Page Optimization | | wparlaman0