Why does Google not show my Meta Descriptions Sometimes ?
-
Hi Friends
We have Meta Descriptions on our Pages but when certain keywords are typed into google search , different meta descriptions are created , for example when searching for "fancy dress" we see our meta description which is correct -
Shop with Party Domain for all your Fancy Dress. 1000s of Fancy Dress Ideas at CHEAP Prices. Halloween Fancy Dress. Next Day Delivery and Same Day ...
However when searching for "fancy dress costumes" the same page is ranked but the meta description is
Fancy Dress. Female Pirate Fancy Dress Costume. £ 13.80. Female Pirate Fancy ... SKU: G11034. Pirate Captain Fancy Dress Costume. £ 12.22. RRP: £ 15.02 ...
Thanks
Adam
-
Hi Matt
It was the only change we made , I have since optimised more meta descriptions across main landing pages so I will let you know what happens.
-
Was this the only change you made? Supposedly meta descriptions have no bearing on rankings, but this depends how much you believe what Google says. I personally don't believe they are a ranking factor but it would be hard to argue this if you think you haven't amended anything else.
-
Thank you very much everybody, we made that change on friday. The changes can be seen today when searching for the relevant keyword "fancy dress costumes" and we have increased our position from 13th to 7th !
-
Matt summed it up nicely. If you rank for a keyword, and that keyword is not in the meta description, Google will sometimes pull the snippet of where the keyword is featured in your content. So, if you decide not to change your meta description you can still try to optimize that snippet to increase ctr in serps.
-
Your snippet will be populated based on the information Google feels is the most relevant to the query. Meta descriptions are one of the elements Google can use for this purpose, but if it feels your on-page content (for example) is more relevant to the user's search, this will show instead.
The Open Directory Project is another way your snippet can be created - Google uses DMoz and other listings to create your snippet, although you can opt out of this by using the noodp instruction in your robots meta tag.
If you want your carefully-crafted description to show in search, make sure it is directly keyword-relevant to the query you want it to show for. If you're selling red shoes, make sure 'red shoes' is included in the meta description, preferably as an exact match phrase. This won't help you rank higher, but it will help your MD show as opposed to your page content or any other information.
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
-
Virtual URL Google not indexing?
Dear all, We have two URLs: The main URL which is crawled both by GSC and where Moz assigns our keywords is: https://andipaeditions.com/banksy/ The second one is called a virtual url by our developpers: https://andipaeditions.com/banksy/signedandunsignedprintsforsale/ This is currently not indexed by Google. We have been linking to the second URL and I am unable to see if this is passing juice/anything on to the main one /banksy/ Is it a canonical? The /banksy/ is the one that is being picked up in serps/by Moz and worry that the two similar URLs are splitting the signal. Should I redirect from the second to the first? Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | TAT1000 -
Google Search Console issue: "This is how Googlebot saw the page" showing part of page being covered up
Hi everyone! Kind of a weird question here but I'll ask and see if anyone else has seen this: In Google Search Console when I do a fetch and render request for a specific site, the fetch and blocked resources all look A-OK. However, in the render, there's a large grey box (background of navigation) that covers up a significant amount of what is on the page. Attaching a screenshot. You can see the text start peeking out below (had to trim for confidentiality reasons). But behind that block of grey IS text. And text that apparently in the fetch part Googlebot does see and can crawl. My question: is this an issue? Should I be concerned about this visual look? Or no? Never have experienced an issue like that. I will say - trying to make a play at a featured snippet and can't seem to have Google display this page's information, despite it being the first result and the query showing a featured snippet of a result #4. I know that it isn't guaranteed for the #1 result but wonder if this has anything to do with why it isn't showing one. VmIqgFB.png
On-Page Optimization | | ChristianMKG0 -
Google index new data from my website page
Hi All, We have pages which are created few weeks before hand for Movie reviews in those pages we add value with adding the Movie cast and crew info and what ever info possible before the movie releases. The the movie releases we watch the movies and write reviews which is 500+ words. Now the issue is the pages are indexed a week before... How can i have these review pages scanned immediately when i have the complete review as the review content is not indexed for 3 to 5 days and the first day or 2 is when its important for the reviews to be seen in Google. Regards
On-Page Optimization | | AlexisWithers0 -
Strange ranking occurrences in Google (NL)
Mozzers, I got a question for all of you. Recently (about 3 months ago) I launched a renewed website for a costumer of mine. Since then rankings have been improving and some decreasing a little but overall it went quite allright. _Still, we now have some issues with some new pages and I really don't know what to do any more. _ The Case:
On-Page Optimization | | JarnoNijzing
For starters lets say the company sells vacuum cleaners. We now make pages for specific product ranges e.g. Miele Diamond vacuum cleaners which in turn tells something about this product range and has links to different pages of that series, for instance the Miele Black Diamond Silent Vacuum Cleaner. Why did we do this? We already ranked for specific product pages but also wanted to rank for more general terms and thus product ranges. What happened? We now rank perfectly well for the product pages itself but for some reason the Miele Diamond Vacuum Cleaners page doesn't rank at all or not as it should. Why is this strange? Because we applied the exact same tactic for some other product ranges on the same website and it worked like a charm (part of the reason why we started to do this for all product-ranges). I could really use some help here. If you want I can message you the pagelink in PM but I won't post it here for several reasons. The Vacuum Cleaners in this example or not the real products though but used as an exemplar. I really do hope to hear from you with some advice or request for more information. Regards
Jarno0 -
Moz not showing blog errors
I have a campaign running in moz for getpromoted.in. Your moz is only crawling and showing website errors not blog (blog.getpromoted.in). Please advice whats the issue
On-Page Optimization | | zigmund0 -
Category Descriptions if Category Pages are Noindexed?
I have noindexed my category pages. Do I still need to write a description for my categories? I am using the plugin SEO Content Control to see what I can spiff up but I don't want to waste my time. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | dealblogger0 -
Why Does Google Keep Changing My Page Titles?
I know Google has been doing this for quite some time but how do you "control" what Google will display as your page name? Lots of my pages come up with a title like "[searched keyword] - [website name]" in the search results. I usually a huge drop in CTR when this happens. On the other hand, there are some pages which have kept their title intact in the search results. So what gives? How come one page's title is changed and the other is not?
On-Page Optimization | | sbrault740 -
Title, other html tags not showing on onpage reports
Either something is seriously wrong with my website or seomoz is not analyzing my site correctly. When I view the source code for my site (www.myfavoritetoys.com) I clearly see elements such as page title, h1 tags etc. However, on the onpage reports seomoz says these elements are missing. I am not seeing any meaningful data in the reports because it isn't analyzing correctly. Please help!
On-Page Optimization | | mortickles0
