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
-
Old DMOZ description showing up in SERP meta description.
I have a client whose home page meta description on the SERPs is not matching the description n the meta data. The SERP description is from an old DMOZ description. Any idea about the best way to update this?
On-Page Optimization | | bdcseo0 -
A charset attribute on a meta element found after the first 1024 bytes.
Can anybody help me with this error please... Error: A charset attribute on a meta element found after the first 1024 bytes https://validator.w3.org/nu/?doc=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialmotors.uk%2F I have no idea how to find or fix this issue, i have spoke to my theme dev and they say it is not a problem with the theme, so i do not know were to turn now. As you will see in the link above there are a couple of errors, i do not know how to fix them either 😞 Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Taylor170 -
Meta Robots index & noindex Both Implemented on Website
I don't want few of the pages of website to get indexed by Google, thus I have implemented meta robots noindex code on those specific pages. Due to some complications I am not able to remove meta robots index from header of every page Now, on specific pages I have both codes 'index & noindex' implemented. Question is: Will Google crawl/index pages which have noindex code along with index code? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Exa0 -
No product descriptions
Hi all, Wondering if I could get the opinions from other Moz user's on this issue please... A client is building a new online store, it is in the flooring niche, using the drop shipping model. The plan is to launch the site with about 1,000 products and then add more as we go. All good so far (the site is magento based) However, the issue we are facing is down to product descriptions. The client needs to get the site up and running asap to start generating sales but the wholesaler has not provided any product description information for the products - save the size, shape and colour. Can anyone foresee a major issue in launching the website with no product descriptions, from a seo point of view, and then adding the descriptions as we go. Have been trying to establish what Google defines as being a thin site and all the information on the topic is suggesting it is more due to duplicate content where, for example, retailers are all still using the default manufacturer description or have spun the content. I cannot find much which would suggest that product pages missing a description would classify as thing. I am happy to be corrected though. I accept that it would be easier to rank with a good product description but the client is a two person business and it is pretty hard to find things to say about 1,000 different kinds of rugs! Any thoughts would be most welcome please. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | daedriccarl0 -
International SEO - differentiating Meta data
Hi, We are developing a website for a company based in the US, but that also distributes to the UK. After careful thought, we decided to go with adding subdirectories for the UK pages on the site rather than creating content on a new ccTLD (though they own that domain). 1. How much of the Title Tags, H1, content, needs to be different for UK versions of the same page. Is it enough to simply Geo tag the EN subdirectory in Webmaster Tools? Or do the Title tags and content need to be different in order to avoid keyword cannibalization? 2. Would it be better to create a Landing Page using the ccTLD .co.uk version with information that links to the .com/en version? This would allow the users to see the .co.uk version for trust-building purposes. Or, would it just be better to 301 redirect the .co.uk version to the .com/en? Thanks for your help! Erin
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0 -
Bogus duplicate meta descriptions in GWT
UPDATE:
On-Page Optimization | | PatioLifeStyle
The same type of error (returning a page structure with no content and no CSS) can be replicated by adding a trailing slash to any valid URL. This leads me to believe that there is a problem on the server. It should be serving the custom 404 page instead of junk. I have fixed the "ezine" directory problem by doing a wildcard 301 on that directory, so you can ignore that issue. We are experiencing issues on one of our sites that we cannot resolve. It is an issue that many sites seem to have, according to discussions within the Google Webmaster Tools forum. We have tried several of the suggestions made in that forum, without success. We need somebody to help us resolve this: who has experience with this issue who knows exactly what is causing it who knows how to fix it Definition of Problem Location:
Google Webmaster Tools | Optimization | HTML Improvements | Duplicate meta descriptions (similar issues also appear in the same area under Duplicate title tags) By drilling down into a listed error, we see two versions of the problem: Multiple instances of the page are displayed, and appended to the URL is another URL of a page that has no relationship to the first. The screenshot also shows a directory (/ezine) that was deleted and renamed. See attached pic
duplicatemetadescriptions1.jpg Also by drilling down in the same way, some of the instances show unique URLs, but the ones listed (other than the correct one), do not exist. See attached pic
duplicatemetadescriptions2.jpg Please offer only KNOWN solution(s). Thank you. 79cNe0 -
Meta Data definition for multiple pages. Potential duplicate content risk?
Hi all, One of our clients needs to redefine their meta title and description tags. They publish very similar information almost every day, so the structure they propose is the following: Structure 1: Type of Analysis + periodicity + data + brand name Examples 1: Monthly Market Analysis, 1/5/2012 - Brand Name Weekly Technical Analysis, 7/5/2012 - Brand Name Structure 2: Company Name + investment recommendation + periodicity Example 2: Iberdrola + investment recommendation (this text doesn't vary) + 2T12 (wich means 2012, 2nd trimestrer) Regarding meta description they want to follow a similar approach, replicating every time the same info with a slight variation for each publication. I'm afraid this may cause a duplicate content problem because of the resemblance of every "Market Analysis" done or every "Investment recommendation" done in the future. My initial suggestion for them is to define specific and unique meta data for each page, but this is not possible for them given the time it takes to do it for every page. Finally, I ask them to specify the data in each meta title of content published, in order to add something different each time and avoid duplicate content penalty. Will this be enough to avoid duplicate content issues? Thanks in advance for your help folks! Alex
On-Page Optimization | | elisainteractive0 -
Research on what improves CTR on meta data?
Does anyone know of any research done to show what improves CTR for title tags & descriptions in search results? I know general best practices, but am looking for any available studies
On-Page Optimization | | nicole.healthline0