Long meta description
-
Hello,
I apologize in advance because the question must have already been posted, but 90% of my searches in "Search for a Question" drive me to a "no questions found" (i would be nice to improve this aspect of the Pro Q&A Forum
So, a friend of mine asked to me what he should put for the meta description of automatically generated pages for his project. He has no tool to set a customized meta description for every page (and does not want to find one !) but he asked me the following : what is the less worse between :
-
put the first words of the content (150 characters)
-
put nothing and let google find what will be the better parts of the content for the user request
-
put the whole content (600 characters) in order to avoid having just the begining of the content, which is not always useful in that case
Did anyone try these options, what would be the less unproductive ?
Thanks
Loïc
-
-
Putting nothing actually isn't always bad these days. If the pages are clearly unique, Google can create a snippet with no trouble. In fact, they often do this anyway (regardless of your META description). Most people prefer some control over the snippet (you never have total control), but I've seen cases where leaving a META description off worked fine.
There really isn't much benefit to going beyond the length limit - it's not a ranking signal and Google will only display up to the limit. If you had a long META description, it's possible Google would display a middle section of it if that matched the query, but in most cases I wouldn't bother. You're just using up load-time for something very low value. Presumably, that text is also on the page somewhere.
All of this is to say that, while I'd lean toward the truncated version, I don't think it's cut-and-dry. I'd actually say the long version is my last pick in most cases. As @Boomajoom said, it could be a spam signal (although probably only if its keyword-stuffed).
-
Thanks for all your answers, I understand putting nothing is the worse option. For other options, it depends on the tools provided by the website, but taking the first 150 characters is the right thing to do when no more accurate method is available.
Thanks again
-
I always put a meta description. I do keep them less than 150 characters. I agree that this is the call to action in organic rankings. I love to ask a question that uses the keywords for the page. For example:
Looking for Security Officer Training Classes in Houston Texas? Enroll today for Top Gun Security’s Level 2 security officer/security guard class.
or
Need a Houston Electrician? Call ProLectric an expert electrician serving Houston, Texas. For fast electrical service call 281-957-5514.
I hope this helps!
-
First words of the content is the best option. But I would recommend some combination of taking some of the title and content to make sure you have some of the solid keywords. DO NOT PUT NOTHING. DO NOT PUT 600 CHARACTERS.
As a reference here is what the search engines show:
Google shows 69 Characters (Including Spaces) for Page Title.
Google shows 156 Characters (Including Spaces) for Meta Description.
Yahoo shows up to 72 Characters (Including Spaces) for a Page Title. (PDF’s up to 75 characters)
Yahoo shows up to 161 Characters (Including Spaces) for Meta Description.
Bing shows 65 Characters (Including Spaces) for a Page Title Tag.
Bing shows up to 150 Characters (Including Spaces) for Meta Description Tag.
-
Your meta description isn't really a factor in ranking and more of a call to action for a user to click the search result. That said, putting too much there is probably a spam signal.
My suggestion would be to either leave it blank or put the first words of the content. Google will replace the snippet based on user query no matter what your decision.
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
-
titles length, URL length and meta descriptions on a subdomain effecting SEO on main domain?
Hi all, I am currently evaluating areas for optimization on my main domain. When doing this, Moz has identified multiple titles and urls that should be shortened and missing meta descriptions on my subdomain (a help center of sorts). As far as I am aware, we have not set up any "no-index" rules for this subdomain. Are these items affecting SEO on my main domain? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | annegretwidmer
Kasey0 -
How Long For Percolation?
How long does it currently take a page to percolate up as far as it is likely to in SERPs? We posted and had Google index a blog post a few weeks back that isn't yet on the radar. I'm surprised at that given the competition on that keyword and the fact that Moz gives us an A for on-page optimization. Our site has another page ranking at 23 for the keyword, but it isn't nearly as optimized for it as the new one. Thanks for your help.
On-Page Optimization | | Ntara-Integrated-Marketing0 -
How long should I leave an existing web page up after a 301 redirect?
I've been reading through a few of blog posts here on moz and can't seem to find the answer to these two questions: How long should I leave an existing page up after a 301 redirect? The page old page is no longer needed but has pretty high page authority. If I take the old page down—the one that I'm redirecting from—immediately after I set up the 301 redirect, will link juice still be passed to the new page? My second question is, right now, on my index.html page I have both a 301 redirect and a rel canonical tag in the head. They were both put in place to redirect and pass link equity respectively. I did this a couple years back after someone recommended that I do both just to be safe, but from what I've gathered reading the articles here on moz is that your supposed to pick one or the other depending on whether or not it's permanent. Should I remove the rel conanical tag or would it be better to just leave it be?
On-Page Optimization | | ScottMcPherson0 -
Google is NOT showing up the right META DESCRIPTION
Hi, Recently I changed titles and meta descriptions of some pages. The problem is that google have updated the titles but not the meta descriptions.. Ive also checekd the source code of the google cached version of the pages crawled and the meta description reflect the changes i did...but the changes don't appear in google. Do you have some solution/advice for the issue? Tx so Much
On-Page Optimization | | tourtravel0 -
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 -
The page is missing meta language information.
Hi, I saw my website have a problem about meta language, I do some search and found that I need to add on the , with 'll' is language code and 'cc' is country code. But I am confused what should I do, because my website is world wide, not launch at specific any language and country. Please give me an advice in this case. Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh0 -
E-commerce site product descriptions and duplicate content
Hi everyone. I'm developing an e-commerce site using Prestashop and concerned about the issue of duplicate content among product descriptions. My main concerns are: If there are 500 or more products and those product descriptions are obtained from a manufacturer or supplier's website hence running into external duplicate content issues. Internal duplicate content is also an issue, if there are multiple similar products and each product has the same description across several pages. What would be the best approach to eliminate the possibility of incurring a duplicate content penalty due to similar product descriptions? I've already considered the suggestion of noindex-ing the complete range of products to help protect from duplicate content penalties and having unique articles written in the site blog discussing products instead linking to certain products on the site. Another consideration I had was noindex-ing all product pages except pages for featured products in the store and rewriting descriptions for a set amount of those featured products regularly (this will still have the problem of internal duplicate content across pages if similar product descriptions are rewritten). The product range is intended to be very large so I'm really seeking an alternative solution from the insane task of rewriting many product descriptions. Any suggestions to make SEO work efficient are very much welcome and appreciated. Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | valuepets0 -
For Service Sites, having a phone number in meta description ALWAYS a good idea?
If you have a site that offers a same day service, e.g. plumbing, electrical, computer support: do you think it would always be a good idea to stick the phone # in the meta description?
On-Page Optimization | | ilyaelbert1