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
-
Is Bing also ignoring meta Keywords tags?
Hi, I originally asked about pros (or lack of them) when it comes to using meta keywords tags here https://moz.com/community/q/importance-or-lack-of-meta-keywords-tags-and-tags-in-drupal. It was most likely related to Google, I guess. Is that the same if it comes to Bing as few sources are not sure how this SERP consider using meta keywords tags and people only speculating. Anyone has any kind of "confirmed" responses or experience? Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies0 -
Generating a meta-description
What are some things I should know before implementing a process whereby (public) user account data is used to generate a meta-description? I can't find much information in the existing forums. Are rich snippets a better option in 2015?
On-Page Optimization | | CallumClothierfairs0 -
Meta description for Privacy Policy?
Hello guys, Quick question about optimizing other pages on my woocommerce e-commerce store. Do I need to optimize pages like the cart page, checkout page, privacy policy, return policy, shipping policy, etc? Strictly talking about on page SEO for these pages, like meta titles, description. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | The_Kiwi_Man0 -
Meta Title in Google does not match the HTML meta title I have coded in a site
I have a client site that is pulling a meta title that is not in his code. I am using Yoast for the titles and descriptions on this site. Not 100% sure why Google is not listing the title we have in place. Could the code be pulling from somewhere else? Is there a fix for this?
On-Page Optimization | | Bryan_Loconto0 -
Should I include a meta description for my tags on posts
Hi Our crawl report detects that we have not put in a meta description for any of the tags we have used on our blog. (total tag words we have used is around 70). We have however, put a full description of each of our categories, do we really need to put a description for each of the tags we use? Will this really help us with SEO? Also can tags on posts be the same as the keyword your trying to rank the post/article about? For further information We are using Yoast.
On-Page Optimization | | lethalmarketing0 -
Different Categories, Same Meta Description?
I've heard that having duplicate meta descriptions is bad for SEO and can even be the cause of penalties. However, a duplicate meta description would make sense for different categories on many sites. So I'm wondering what the best solution is for a case like this? One of my sites has around 150 topics, and each topic page is exactly the same, aside from including only things that are related to that specific topic. So why would I want to create 150 different meta descriptions? Not only is it time consuming, and nearly impossible to create 150 unique descriptions for the same type of content, but it also serves no purpose for visitors coming from the search engines. A logical approach would be to use the same meta description and just switch out the topics in the description... but then all of those descriptions would be 95% the same - and I imagine Google might see that as spam. So... suggestions?
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
Why would meta description text get added to the meta HTTP-EQUIV tag?
For one of my clients, the people coding the site added the meta description content to the HTTP-EQUIV tag as part of the "name" attribute. Curious if anyone has seen this practice before?! I notified them that the description meta tag was not coded properly -- the search engines do not interpret the "name" attribute and the text that is in it. Anyway, It looks like: **<meta http-equiv="<a class="attribute-value">Content-Type</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">text/html; charset=utf-8</a>" name="... <a class="attribute-value">and services. ... .</a>" />**
On-Page Optimization | | alankoen1230 -
Does keyword at the very front of meta description have impact?
I know that it is important to have your primary keyword target as the first word or two words of your title tag. But what about your meta description tag? does it matter where they keyword is in the description tag? I see a lot of other sites stuffing their keywords right at the front of the description tag and it looks somewhat unnatural. What's your take? do you put the primary keyword as the first word or two words of your description tag?
On-Page Optimization | | adriandg0