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
-
How unique should a meta description be?
I'm working on a large website (circa 25k pages) that presently just replicates each page title as a meta description. I'm thinking of doing a 'find and replace' in the database so I change: to where the preceeding and following text would be the same in each case eg Is this unique enough? Obviously the individual keyword would make it technically unique each time....and manually changing them would take the rest of my life 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | abisti21 -
Regarding Google Title 'Width' and changing Meta Titles w/o Penalty?
A vast majority of pages on my site are now too wide (the character count was fine prior to the March update). I want to go through and update them so they display properly and are not too wide.However, I am concerned, as my understanding was that changing Meta Titles is dangerous and can have a negative effect on your rankings and can cause real issues. Is this an opportunity to change my Titles all-together without any kind of penalty? Or can I only trim the end part? In summary: 1. Can I edit all of my Meta Titles without affecting my rankings? 2. If no, how do I edit them properly to fit within the proper width and not cause any issues? 3. If yes, I can go through and change all my Meta Titles to whatever extent and optimize them to reflect latest best practices? There are changes I wanted to make to all my meta titles but I've been afraid to... due to fear of rankings drops etc Any help with this would be greatly appreciated
On-Page Optimization | | lawfirm0 -
Google Results Title Tag HELP
Can anybody tell us why Google changes your title tag in the SERP? If you check out the below link or type in 'days inn', you will see the 2nd result for www.daysinnrc.co.uk just says 'Days Inn' but on the actual site the title tag for this page is 'Days Inn UK | Days Inn | Daysinnrc.co.uk' http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=days+inn&oq=days+inn&gs_l=hp.3...4110.4110.4.4297.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.kWVC24EnCHE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=7680231318a44bb0&bpcl=35466521&biw=1920&bih=934 This has happened with another site too, does anybody know why? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | SEOwins0 -
My text does not show up in Google
Hi there. I've got an urgent question I hope someone can help me with. I've made a website (www.tonyharrismakingcents.com.au) with a few content pages. I don't get a lot of traffic. All my pages are scrawled and I don't see any errors. However, when I copy an entire paragraph and Google it, it does not show up in the search results. This makes me believe that the pages are not scrawled correctly. Only when I search for the exact paragraph by putting it between "", the website shows up on the results page. What can be the reason for this? Thanks for your help..It's much appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | csrinpractice0 -
SERP - Hi How come I get different results on page one of Google with the same query from my colleague who sits next to me? We are both logged out of Google and it’s on google.co.uk thanks in advance Daniel
Hi How come I get different results on page one of Google with the same query from my colleague who sits next to me? We are both logged out of Google and it’s on google.co.uk thanks in advance Daniel
On-Page Optimization | | ds80 -
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords, it is reporting on only about 10 of the 40
On-Page Optimization | | yours2share0 -
Indexed pages in Google webmaster tools
Hi Mozzers, Very quick question. Google WM tools interface has updated and I want to confirm I'm looking at the correct figure. If I look up 'Your site on the web' / 'search queries' / then the 'pages' - this is correct indexation figure yes? This differs from the 'site:' command but that's always the case. Can anyone confirm, Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Bush_JSM0 -
Pages with duplicate meta descriptions.
So I have similar items that is being recognized as duplicated meta description. What should I do? Here is couple of items.
On-Page Optimization | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0