Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Why isn't our complete meta title showing up in the Google SERPS? (cut off half way)
-
We carry a product line, cutless bearings (for use on boats).
For instance, we have one, called the Able, that has the following meta title (and searched by View Page Source to confirm): BOOT 1-3/8" x 2-3/8" x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutless Bearing | BOOT Cutlass
However, if I search for it on on Google by part number or name (boot cutless bearing, boot cutlass bearing), the meta title comes back with whole first part chopped off, only showing this : "x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutless Bearing | BOOT Cutlass - Citimarine ..."
Any idea why?
Here's the url if it will hopefully help: https://citimarinestore.com/en/metallic-inches/156-boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.html
All the products in the category are doing the same.
Thanks!
-
sometimes people write a meta title on meta description so its too long, there are free plug-ins, if you have a WordPress website where you can write the meta title and the meta description and often it shows if it's red, amber or if it's green, in terms of whether you have written a long enough or too long Meta title meta description
-
sometimes the meta title might be too long, we had this problem with a Bristol company we had to rewrite the meta titles using yoast SEO, to improve the organic seo.
-
Three methods using modules on your existing CMS of implementing the fixes. I use labels A, B & C three different configurations C is the least expensive I think all three of them would add a lot of value however you would be very safe using A or C
A)
**1) all-in-one with canonical **
2) JSON-LD
B)
1) Add a canonical tag to your site
https://addons.prestashop.com/en/url-redirects/22526-canonical-seo.html
2) open graph
3) JSON-LD
or
C )
1) Add a canonical tag to your site
https://addons.prestashop.com/en/url-redirects/22526-canonical-seo.html
2) This module offers structured data/JSON-LD Facebook and Twitter open graph tag redirects Site maps etc. a base SEO suite without a canonical tag found above.
This video is of the all-in-one module without the canonical tag unfortunately but it's the least expensive of the two.
I hope this wasn't confusing I would choose A or C it will really help your site.
All the best,
Tom
-
Very complete information. Thank you very much! I will first try simplifying the meta title, might be a bit too long now. See other competitors with the same meta title, just cutting out some of the later stuff we have.
Will go through this answer more in detail when back in the office tomorrow and see the other suggestions. Thank you once again.
-
I don't know how much it will help but if you remove the MFG prior to the part number it may help a little bit. It's a 30% chance but the reason I bring it up is when I google "MFG#: 870352103." exactly what you have on the page shows me the highlight what I have typed in however the part number is shown in addition but it is not highlighted.
I strongly believe this was done intentionally by Google for a better user experience.
Google tunicates and rewrites descriptions all the time. I don't think to have the part number in the SERPS is considered important to Google
Your meta description is a suggestion to Google. There’s no guarantee that it’ll actually be shown. So, if you don’t see your description, that means Google probably made something up for you. Perhaps it felt the meta description you created didn’t represent the content of the page, or is a duplicate, for instance. Here you’ll find all the possible reasons why your meta description doesn’t show.
very long part numbers are unlikely to give a clear idea of the content of the page, therefore, less likely to be displayed.
- Good descriptions are human-readable and diverse. Page-specific data is a good candidate for programmatic generation. Keep in mind that meta descriptions comprised of long strings of keywords don't give users a clear idea of the page's content, and are less likely to be displayed in place of a regular snippet.
- Use quality descriptions. Finally, make sure your descriptions are truly descriptive. Because the meta descriptions aren't displayed in the pages the user sees, it's easy to let this content slide. But high-quality descriptions can be displayed in Google's search results, and can go a long way to improving the quality and quantity of your search traffic.
- See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624?hl=en
- https://moz.com/blog/how-to-write-meta-descriptions-in-a-changing-world
- https://www.authoritylabs.com/title-tags/
- https://moz.com/learn/seo/meta-description
- https://kb.yoast.com/kb/my-meta-descriptions-arent-showing-up-in-the-search-result-pages/
I would look into implementing JSON-LD /schema on the page so you can edit your product number you can do this with the Screaming Frog it will show you the pixel with because character length is not always the same as the letter "I" use less space than the letter "H"
It is free for up to 500 URLs https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
In addition, I have posted your page URL, description and it is still lacking a canonical tag I would add one.
the part number if search for will show up because that's what the user intends on looking for. In addition you do not want Google taking clicks from your website you want people to click on your site in order to find the part number you may want to change your content to make the part numbers a bigger part of the actual page content.
-
Page Url
-
https://citimarinestore.com/en/metallic-inches/156-boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.html
-
Title
-
BOOT 1-3/8" x 2-3/8" x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutlass Bearing [Length:53]
-
Meta Description
-
DURAMAX BOOT Cutlass Johnson Bearing, Naval Brass. Shaft Diameter: 1 3/8", Outside Diameter: 2 3/8", Length: 5 1/2", Thickness: 1/8". Weight: 1.8 lbs. 870352103 [Length:160]
-
Canonical
-
None
Google "boot cutless bearing, boot cutlass bearing"
https://citimarinestore.com/en/metallic-inches/156-boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.html
Google "cutless bearing"
https://citimarinestore.com/citiguide/johnson-cutless-bearings-your-complete-guide/
https://citimarinestore.com/en/136-johnson-duramax-cutless-bearings
Googling "870352103"
It could be that it's over 550 pixels
Try using https://metatags.io/ to add Open Graph tags to your products or Facebook twitter and other social media platforms
-
Page Url
-
https://citimarinestore.com/en/metallic-inches/156-boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.html
-
<title>BOOT 1-3/8" x 2-3/8" x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutlass Bearing</title>
To add JSON-LD
With
https://www.rankranger.com/schema-markup-generator (I used a Image from your page for the photo) https://citimarinestore.com/429-large/boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.jpg
Tested in https://search.google.com/test/rich-results?id=qjE-Sbw4lhzWGpK4hmYHqA
Add the MPN in JSON-LD****SKU is a retailer's own Stock Keeping Unit, which they use to keep track of inventory. This would be unique to each retailer. MPN is the Manufacturer's Part Number, which in the case of the DURAMAX BOOT Cutlass Johnson Bearing you mention would be 870352103
Hope this helps,
Tom
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
-
Meta-description issue in SERPs for different countries
I'm working with a US client on the SEO for their large ecommerce website, I'm working on it from the UK. We've now optimised several of the pages including updating the meta-descriptions etc. The problem is when I search on the keyword iin the UK I see the new updated version of the meta-description in SERPs results. BUT when my client searches on the same keyword in the US they're see the old version of the meta-description. Does any one have any idea why this is happening and how we can resolve it? Thanks Tanya
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TanyaKorteling0 -
My site shows 503 error to Google bot, but can see the site fine. Not indexing in Google. Help
Hi, This site is not indexed on Google at all. http://www.thethreehorseshoespub.co.uk Looking into it, it seems to be giving a 503 error to the google bot. I can see the site I have checked source code Checked robots Did have a sitemap param. but removed it for testing GWMT is showing 'unreachable' if I submit a site map or fetch Any ideas on how to remove this error? Many thanks in advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SolveWebMedia0 -
Why Google isn't indexing my images?
Hello, on my fairly new website Worthminer.com I am noticing that Google is not indexing images from my sitemap. Already 560 images submitted and Google indexed only 3 of them. Altough there is more images indexed they are not indexing any new images, and I have no idea why. Posts, categories and other urls are indexing just fine, but images not. I am using Wordpress and for sitemaps Wordpress SEO by yoast. Am I missing something here? Why Google won't index my images? Thanks, I appreciate any help, David xv1GtwK.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Worthminer1 -
What happens to a domain in SERPs when it's set to redirect to another?
We have just acquired a competing website and are wondering whether to leave it running as is for now, or set the domain to redirect to our own site. If we set up this redirect, what would happen to the old site in Google SERPs? Would the site drop off from results? If so, would we capture this new search traffic or is it a free for all and all sites compete for the search traffic as normal? Thanks in advance. Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kevinliao0 -
Should I use both Google and Bing's Webmaster Tools at the same time?
Hi All, Up till now I've been registered only to Google WMT. Do you recommend using at the same time Bing's WMT? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet0 -
Disallowed Pages Still Showing Up in Google Index. What do we do?
We recently disallowed a wide variety of pages for www.udemy.com which we do not want google indexing (e.g., /tags or /lectures). Basically we don't want to spread our link juice around to all these pages that are never going to rank. We want to keep it focused on our core pages which are for our courses. We've added them as disallows in robots.txt, but after 2-3 weeks google is still showing them in it's index. When we lookup "site: udemy.com", for example, Google currently shows ~650,000 pages indexed... when really it should only be showing ~5,000 pages indexed. As another example, if you search for "site:udemy.com/tag", google shows 129,000 results. We've definitely added "/tag" into our robots.txt properly, so this should not be happening... Google showed be showing 0 results. Any ideas re: how we get Google to pay attention and re-index our site properly?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | udemy0 -
Old Redirecting Website Still Showing In SERPs
I have a client, a plumber, who bought another plumbing company (and that company's domain) at one point. This other company was very old and has a lot of name recognition so they created a dedicated page to this other company within their main website, and redirected the other company's old domain to that page. This has worked fine, in that this page on the main site is now #1 when you search for the other old company's name. But for some reason the old domain comes up #2 (despite the fact that it's redirecting). Now, I could understand if the redirect had only been set up recently, but I'm reasonably sure this happened about a year ago. Could it be due to the fact that there are many sites out there still linking to that old domain? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VTDesignWorks1