Discuss Googles listing description in the Google Optimization forum on SEO Chat. Googles listing description Google Optimization forum discussing techniques to increase rank in Google. Find help for defeating spam pages, building site trust, and beating the Google algorithm. Also read about the best SEO tools to help with Google search.
BuySellLinks.com is a new Text Link Advertising Brokerage by the founder of LinkAdage that offers high-end text links and a premier membership base. We screen all advertisers and publishers and their web pages to make sure we are offering a service that works for everyone. Our plug-in is super easy to install but if you are hands off, w e offer free installation.
Tired of dealing with shady text link buyers and/or sellers? Try BuySellLinks.
Receive the tools necessary to be the rock star of your field. Our 12-month program teaches you the evolving world of multi-channel marketing as well as the complex issues and opportunities found in the industry.
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
Googles listing description
Hello,
I have a site that for some reason I just cant get google to index and display the meta description content. When ever I search for my keyword the site features at number 1 (great) but the black text description is just an odd collection of words from the body text.
Is there anything I can do to prevent this... as I said its not really an issue of ranking rather than I think I would get a better click through if the description of the site made sense.
Any help greatly appreciated.
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
Below is the copied top part of the code from the page...
I have remove the acutal text and keywords to avoid people thinking im trying to get visits to the site.
Can anyone spot any issues from this?
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head><title>My title text is here and diplays fine.</title>
<meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="cache-control" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="verify-v1" content="vsYy+r5xm2IwDLeRXE7sqHvZ9/9OoFNde9irHizEG2s=" />
<meta name="Robots" content="index, follow" />
<meta name="revisit-after" content="7 days" />
<meta name="keywords" content="I have about 6 keywords in here." />
<meta name="description" content="I have a description in here about 20 words long and nothing is being displayed in google." />
<link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="/favicon.ico"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/slimbox.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/thickbox.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/moodalbox.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/mootabs1.2.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/jd.gallery.css" type="text/css" media="all"></link><script src="/js/swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="/js/openwind.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="/js/functions.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="/js/datepicker.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/browsersniff.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/mootools.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jd.gallery.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/mootabs1.2.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/tiny_mce/tiny_mce.js"></script>
<link href="/css/home.css" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/print.css" type="text/css" media="print" />
</head><body>
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
Thanks,
yeah i dont actually do the coding so i wasn't sure these were doing much... do you think these could be the issue?
I know the site did not actually have anything in the description tag for a long time (its managed via a CMS and the field was empty) so im guessing google had no option but to use text from the body of the site... do you over time they might revert back to the meta description?
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
okay everyone, thanks for the advise some great info.
I will look at cleaning up the code and then play the waiting game and see if they revert back.
Thanks again everyone, really appreciate people taking the time to comment.
Posts: 73
Time spent in forums: 1 Day 1 h 8 m 13 sec
Reputation Power: 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueaardvark
Hello,
I have a site that for some reason I just cant get google to index and display the meta description content. When ever I search for my keyword the site features at number 1 (great) but the black text description is just an odd collection of words from the body text.
You know buddy as far as i understand your question, you cant manipulate it. If Google see the phrase/words/terms inside your <body>/content then it will show a snippet of your <body> where the phrase is found and bold it.
Fixing/cleaning of your code will not solve your problem
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
yeah i think you misunderstand, its the meta description as a whole that they are not showing even though there is one now. Im not bothered about whether keywords or phrases are being highlighted or even if they use the description at all for ranking. I think the best thing about the meta description is just as it should be, to describe the site more effectivly than google taking random parts from the body text out of context.
thanks
Last edited by blueaardvark : July 14th, 2008 at 09:23 AM.
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
woah, i appoligise it was me who misunderstod your comment Morph, i thought you were thinking i was expecting to be able to influence what google highlights!
Must admit i was under the impression that if a description tag was there that they would display this? am i wrong in this then?
E23CRAWL - a misunderstanding, of course i want to listen to the answers.
Posts: 6,058
Time spent in forums: 4 Months 1 Week 1 Day 11 h 16 m 37 sec
Reputation Power: 1546
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueaardvark
woah, i appoligise it was me who misunderstod your comment Morph, i thought you were thinking i was expecting to be able to influence what google highlights!
Must admit i was under the impression that if a description tag was there that they would display this? am i wrong in this then?
E23CRAWL - a misunderstanding, of course i want to listen to the answers.
If the search term appears in your meta description google will display the meta. If not google will display a snippet. Do you have a DMOZ listing. Google may be displaying your dmoz description. To solve this add this to your metas <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOODP">
Posts: 238
Time spent in forums: 2 Days 12 h 7 m 20 sec
Reputation Power: 5
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueaardvark
woah, i appoligise it was me who misunderstod your comment Morph, i thought you were thinking i was expecting to be able to influence what google highlights!
Must admit i was under the impression that if a description tag was there that they would display this? am i wrong in this then?
E23CRAWL - a misunderstanding, of course i want to listen to the answers.
Morph is right. Where ever in the content or description, Visitors searched keyword is, that is given the prime preference in snippet. Its not always that google will show your description.
Have you ever tried your sites instances, the first one from homepage, does this shows your description or the snippet containing your homepage URL.
Try this site:www.yoursite.com
Posts: 17
Time spent in forums: 4 h 47 m 23 sec
Reputation Power: 0
As mentioned earlier, thanks for everyones replys, i really do appreciate peolple spending the time to post. Hopfully i will gain the knowledge to help other in the future.