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
-
Should I include my company entity in meta description? (for ex. LLC. Inc.)
I'm re-writing my meta descriptions. I'm wondering if I should include the My Company, LLC. in the description or just My Company. Taking out the entity would save about 4 characters.
On-Page Optimization | | IcarusSEO1 -
Duplicate Meta Tag error
I am getting Duplicate Meta tag error(under HTML improvement) for these kinds of pages http://www.gobol.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?category=&p=3&q=sharp+split+AC+1.5+ton&x=0&y=0 http://www.gobol.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?category=&q=sharp+split+AC+1.5+ton&special_price=4%2C10000&x=0&y=0 http://www.gobol.in/catalogsearch/result/index/?category=&q=sharp+split+AC+1.5+ton&special_price=5%2C10000_8%2C10000&x=0&y=0 What is the best way to resolve such type of error?
On-Page Optimization | | Obbserv0 -
Ecommerce Product Reviews - Show All, Most Recent, Sampling?
Just curious what you guys are doing in the way of displaying product reviews on ecommerce sites. I couldn't find much on best practices here so I'm turning to the Moz community. We're moving our main site to Magento and plan to launch it in a few months. Some of our products have 1,000+ reviews and we're wondering what the best way to show them is. I'm thinking just put them all on there (provided it doesn't slow down the page) to increase unique content per page, more keywords, etc. We've also thought of showing just the 50-100 most recent reviews or filtering the reviews and showing a sampling we choose. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | Kingof50 -
Google indexing page differently
Does google index an interal page differently depending on whether you are using a FULL url (including domain) or just a relative link? Also, is it possible that using a full URL (http://mysite.com/page.html) causes the browser to "ping" the server differently than just having the href linked to using relative links (/page.html) Could this cause server or firewall perfomance issues?
On-Page Optimization | | WebRiverGroup0 -
Are meta tags useless?
I thought they were, but I don't work for a full-fledged SEO agency. I'm a copywriter at a marketing firm so my SEO efforts are generally limited to inserting keywords into on-page content, page titles, and URLs. However, one of our clients works with an SEO agency. Whenever we add a new page to the client's website, they ask the SEO agency for keyword recommendations, which are then passed along to us to implement. The recommendations always include meta tags, so I guess I was wrong about them being useless? Can anyone tell me the purpose of meta tags? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | matt-145670 -
Schema.org and Google +
Now that google merged local into Google+, should we be changing the way we do the reviews on our sites to be out of 3? I had one out of 5 and it showed up in the SERPS, but since the change now nothing shows.
On-Page Optimization | | netviper0 -
Google SERPS showing wrong page.
I am new to SEO and trying to rank for keyword 'corporate entertainment' and my site is currently at 26. However google is showing the homepage http://www.musicliveuk.com in SERPS as opposed to my optomised page http://www.musicliveuk.com/home/corporate-entertainment. Any ideas why it is choosing so show the home page as the most relevant result?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
How unique should meta descriptions be?
I understand that it is a best practice to write a different meta description for each page. However if you have 50 pages on a topic that are similar, is it okay to just change a couple words. For instance if you have a page about how to get an SEO job in each state, can you use the same meta description 50 times but change just the state name. Or is it much better to vary the meta descriptions significantly. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | SparkplugDigital0